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The Wonderful Wizard of Neoliberalism

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The Wonderful Wizard of Neoliberalism Master’s thesis – Social and Cultural Anthropology The Wonderful Wizard of Neoliberalism : Analysis on the youth’s engagement in social entrepreneurship in the context of contemporary Taiwan Supervisor: Dr. Shanshan Lan Name: Ji-ye Oh Second reader: Dr. Yatun Sastramidjaja Student number: 11221283 Third reader: Dr. Leo Douw Word count: 29646 16/8/2018 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The thesis attempts to understand the engagement of young middle-class Taiwanese in social entrepreneurship in the context of contemporary neoliberal Taiwan. Particularly, it focuses on their motives, practices, and future imaginations that make sense of their decision to work for a micro-organization of social entrepreneurship despite its precarious circumstance. Approached from practice theory, the thesis sheds light on how they experience, perceive, and act on the deteriorating living condition in neoliberal Taiwan. I first delineate the historical context to grasp the current youth discourse of Yanshi (Misanthropy) that reflects reflexive impotence toward the consequences of neoliberal policies. In the precarious labor market, they experience alienation and moral breakdown from work. Also, the precarious diplomatic situation of Taiwan leads them to contemplate their identity and society. As such, social entrepreneurship arises as an appealing site for them to engage in society while maintaining the sense of self. Their engagement in social entrepreneurship is upheld by the virtue of freedom and active citizenry in a democratic society. At the same time, their practices risk to reproduce a ‘good’ citizen – that is self-responsible – in the neoliberal state. The thesis aims to show the ambivalence of practices in social entrepreneurship which functions as a mechanism that reproduces the neoliberal relations between the state and citizens, and yet, empowers young practitioners to regain their sense of agency, and restore the power to imagine the collective future against homogenizing future of neoliberalism. Keywords: youth, neoliberalism, precarity, social entrepreneurship, Taiwan 2 Declaration on plagiarism and fraud I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy [http://student.uva.nl/mcsa/az/item/plagiarism-and-fraud.html?f=plagiarism]. I declare that this assignment is entirely my own work, all sources have been properly acknowledged, and that I have not previously submitted this work, or any version of it, for assessment in any other paper. 3 Acknowledgment At times, I had thought this time would never come. It could only come thanks to the many people who supported me to write the thesis. First of all, I want to thank my family for believing in me, believing in me, and believing in me. I also want to thank my supervisor, Shanshan Lan, who provided me with a thorough guidance step by step, insightful advice, and moral support throughout the whole Master’s program. I will always remember our conversations and your metaphor of cooking, and building a house. I am glad that I could explore anthropology at the University of Amsterdam with great faculty members, Milena Veenis, Oskar Verkaaik, Thijs Schut, and Yatun Sastramidjaja who taught me, a non-anthropology student, to be able to conduct the research and write the thesis. I can’t thank enough the student advisor Marieke Brand for being communicative, caring and supportive. Thanks to my classmates, I could have such a pleasant, and exciting time during the Master’s program. Especially, I want to thank Shareefa, Suchi, and Linda for digging me out of extremely loneliness during the writing phase and being there. I appreciate Kim, Justin, Eunice, Hye-seon, Geumdeuk, Lux, So-hee, and many other friends for supporting me to study. Without their encouragement and consolation, I couldn’t have managed to finish the thesis. I also thank Haeyoung for her present, a book of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which became the inspiration for the whole thesis. The research wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my interlocutors who spared their time, trusted me, and shared their personal stories with me. Especially, I thank Kazue, Lucy, Tu- jun, Patrick, Ting-kuan, and Yang-han for supporting me throughout the whole fieldwork with their insightful analysis and criticism. I also want to thank Bary for offering me to stay in his co- living space and encourage me to focus on research. I dedicate the thesis to my grandparents and those who endure the neoliberal time together. 4 Contents Introduction: “The Kansas Prairies” 6 Theoretical Framework 9 Departing from Practice Theory 9 Contextualizing Neoliberalism 9 Social Entrepreneurship and Civil Society in Neoliberal Landscape 11 Youth in Neoliberal Time 13 Methodology 15 Setting and Population 15 Research Methods 16 Ethics 17 Outline of the Thesis 18 Chapter 1. “The Cyclone”: Historical Background of Contemporary Taiwan 20 Liberated Colonies and Authoritarian Developmental Regime 22 The Beginning of Democratization and Neoliberalization 23 Accelerating Neoliberal Transformation and Knowledge Economy 25 The Predominant Feeling of Yanshi 27 The Legacy of the 318 Movement: Formation of Tongwenceng 30 Chapter 2. “The Journey to the Great Oz”: Motives of Young Practitioners 33 Casual Start…? 34 Liberate Myself and Follow My Heart 37 “We are NOT a Social Enterprise” 42 Love for the Land 46 Chapter 3. “In the Emerald City”: Ambivalent Practices of Social Good 50 “Can’t Change? Then, Make It!” 51 Small Projects and Healed Subjects 54 Working with the Government and for the State 59 Inevitable Limitation 62 Chapter 4. “The Magic Art of the Great Humbug”: Two Faces of the Future 67 Gloomy Future 68 Panoptical Time is Ticking 69 Gloomy Future…? 72 The Power of ‘We’ 74 Conclusion: “Home Again” 79 Bibliography 86 5 Introduction: “The Kansas Prairies” Hui-fen is a bubbly young woman in her mid-twenties. She works at an association for migrant workers. With a genuine smile, she often calls herself a weirdo: “Sometimes, my friends are bothered by me because I do some weird things!” ‘Weird things’ include talking to strangers she met at a supermarket about certain brands, or bringing reusable straws for drinks. Hui-fen might have been an ‘ordinary’ college student in Tainan province until March 18 of 2014. When the 318 movement outbreak in 2014 against the hasty ratification of the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement with China, Hui-fen sensed the emergency of the affair and had an urge to participate in the movement. 1 When one of her professors privately offered a transport for students wishing to participate the movement, she got right on the bus to Taipei. 1 Instead of a well-known name of the protest, the Sunflower Movement, I will refer it to as the 318 movement throughout the thesis to reflect the frequent usage of the term by my interlocutors. 6 Looking back on her days of occupying the Legislative Yuan during the 318 movement in 2014, one of the largest student movements in contemporary Taiwan, Hui-fen recalled it as a “magical moment”. I once left the site to pick up some stuff from home. When I arrived in my hometown, suddenly I realized I was in such a small world. The world outside the protest was so detached from what is happening in the Legislative Yuan as if nothing had happened. It was so surreal to me. Now, a lot of people I met during the 318 are all doing… actually, they are inventing jobs. It’s like… they are doing something that people in the previous generation have never done. And it seems like what they are doing is good for Taiwan and I thought ‘let’s try out.’ I felt like… we can do something together. When student leaders decided to cease the occupation of the Legislative Yuan on April 10, they gave the final speech that “Next, we will go deeper into people. We regard defense as an attack, and we will win”, which media reported as opening the era of the post-Sunflower generation.2 While the market integration of Taiwan and China was suspended, the Executive Yuan of Taiwan announced the Social Enterprise Action Plan to boost social entrepreneurship in the same year.3 Without a legal definition of social enterprise in Taiwan, the concept has slowly spread throughout the island. Even with the regime change from the KMT to the DPP in the 2016 Presidential Election, the government’s interest in social entrepreneurship continued to grow. As of 2018, the Taiwanese government is in process to lay the legal ground for social enterprise.4 Along with the government initiative, major universities in Taiwan have started offering relevant education on social entrepreneurship. Ministry of Education is currently promoting the policy on University Social Responsibility (USR) project to call universities “to engage more in contributing to the betterment of society through the integration of social responsibility” in 2016.5 2 See https://dailyview.tw/Daily/2017/04/01 (Daily View 1 Apr 2017). 3 See https://startup.sme.gov.tw/social-enterprises-taking-off-in-taiwan/ (IEIT 8 Nov 2015). 4 See https://vtaiwan.tw/topic/social-enterprise/ (vTaiwan accessed 3 Aug 2018). 5 See http://www.usrnetwork.org/about-usrn/background (URS Network accessed 3 Aug 2018). and See https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2300/News_Content.aspx?n=5D06F8190A65710E&s=F07084151BAB58C2 (Ministry of Education 1 Dec 2016). 7 Such popularization of social entrepreneurship is not only a distinctive phenomenon of Taiwan. In 2015, I joined a start-up social venture in South Korea after graduation. Similar to how Hui-fen experienced the 318 movement, a totally different world seemed to exist between the two bodies of corporate and governmental work. I felt like I was that Dorothy who had arrived at the Emerald City in search of the Wizard of Oz. Social entrepreneurs I met there were passionate, proactive, and positive to change the world.
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