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A Case Study of the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan

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A Case Study of the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan SPATIAL PRACTICES IN THE MOBILE NETWORK AND THE RISE OF INDIVIDUAL POWER: A CASE STUDY OF THE SUNFLOWER STUDENT MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN Master’s Thesis Che-Wei Hsu Intercultural Communication Department of Language and Communication Studies University of Jyväskylä February 2020 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta – Faculty Laitos – Department Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Language and Communication Studies Tekijä – Author Che-Wei Hsu Työn nimi – Title SPATIAL PRACTICES IN THE MOBILE NETWORK AND THE RISE OF INDIVIDUAL POWER: A CASE STUDY OF THE SUNFLOWER STUDENT MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN Oppiaine – Subject Työn laji – Level Intercultural Communication Master’s Thesis Aika – Month and year Sivumäärä – Number of pages February 2020 128 Tiivistelmä – Abstract This thesis chooses the Sunflower Student Movement as a case to analyze the mutual interaction between power-knowledge relation and mobile communication-body relation within a specific social context. The Sunflower Student Movement was a civil protest composed of students, civic groups and the general public. The participants protested against the passing of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA) at the Legislative Yuan. For the first time, protesters occupied the Taiwanese parliament. With the widespread of mobile devices (such as smartphones), the Sunflower Student Movement has marked a new form of resistance in the era of mobile communications. This study uses the discourse of newspapers as the primary source of data. Based on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and Foucault’s power- knowledge relation, this case study explores three interrelated dimensions of society in Taiwan. The first part focuses on discussing Taiwan’s current political and economic environment to trace the relevance of social changes and generational conflicts. The second part mainly shows how the various combination of body and mobile devices creates specific spaces. This social phenomenon has transformed the meaning between space and place, blurring the boundary between virtual and physical space. The third part is an in-depth analysis of the manifestation of personal power in the movement. Individuals, as the subject and object of power, have complicated the resistance and monitoring strategies between government and the civic public with the innovation of mobile networks. This study argues that knowledge is constructed in specific social conditions at a given period. The multiple forms of discourse created during the Sunflower Student Movement influenced the collective consciousness of the public. Moreover, the evolution of mobile networks has changed the ways of knowledge dissemination. In this social context, the relationships between body, power, and knowledge have established a dynamic system of continuous transformation between citizens and government. Asiasanat – Keywords Sunflower Student Movement, power, knowledge, body, mobile communication, critical discourse analysis Säilytyspaikka – Depository University of Jyväskylä Muita tietoja – Additional information TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Background and motivation of the study ....................................................................... 5 1.2 The aim of the study ................................................................................................... 11 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................. 15 2.1 Media and mobile networks—from “the extensions of man” to “the Thumbelina” ...... 15 2.1.1 Media as practices ................................................................................................ 17 2.1.2 The mutual transformation of space and place ...................................................... 18 2.1.3 Spatial practices ................................................................................................... 19 2.2 Foucault’s power-knowledge relation .......................................................................... 21 2.3 Culture, memory and resistance .................................................................................. 22 3 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 27 3.1 Framework and methods ............................................................................................. 27 3.1.1 Genealogical approach—discourse, knowledge and power ................................... 27 3.1.2 Critical discourse analysis .................................................................................... 28 3.2 Data collection ............................................................................................................ 34 4 RESEARCH RESULTS .................................................................................................. 38 4.1 Collective and connective action: revisiting the Sunflower Student Movement ........... 38 4.1.1 Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement and the social movement ........................... 39 4.1.2 The meaning of “Taiwan”: imagining Taiwanese people ....................................... 46 4.1.3 Cultural memory and the “sunflower generation” ................................................. 53 4.2 Mobile media and political space in the networked society ......................................... 61 4.2.1 Mobile media as the mobile communication—formation of mobile network ........ 62 4.2.2 Mobile media and political space ......................................................................... 68 4.2.3 Governmental response to the impact of new media ............................................. 73 4.3 Individual power and civil participation ...................................................................... 77 4.3.1 The boundary of democracy and freedom ............................................................. 78 4.3.2 Political participation in private and public space ................................................. 84 4.3.3 Individual power .................................................................................................. 89 5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 96 5.1 Mobile network, spatial practice and power relation .................................................... 96 5.2 Two formations of discourse—power and knowledge ................................................. 98 5.3 Limitation ................................................................................................................. 101 5.4 Origin, implication and future research ..................................................................... 103 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 106 REFERENCES FROM DATA ......................................................................................... 120 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................... 126 5 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and motivation of the study The advent of the mobile phone could alter interpersonal communication and social norms in mediated communication (Campbell & Russo, 2003; Ling, 2004). Since the first generation of the iPhone released in 2007, the field of mobile communication has been expanded and redefined (Hjorth, Burgess & Richardson, 2012; Berry & Schleser, 2014). Using and carrying smartphones and other mobile devices have become a new social and cultural phenomenon for the human to articulate knowledge in everyday lives. Smartphones are not only a type of tool but also part of the human body. These essential features have created a fast flow of knowledge exchange. Individuals no longer need to be restricted to a particular time and space to share information. For example, people can update any information via social media when they are in motion. Some critical issues will snowball and trigger many discussions. Thus, we are experiencing a new era of shortening time and expanding space on the Internet. This idea means that people can gain knowledge from different sources in multiple forms. In other words, people are now living in the smartphone era with ubiquitous opportunities to challenge the fixed social order. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, 2019), the estimated number of “mobile-cellular telephone” subscriptions was roughly 8.3 billion by the end of 2019. There were an estimated 6.4 billion “active mobile-broadband” subscriptions (p. 5). Today, with the stable growth rate of Internet use, there are more mobile phones than people in the world. As to Taiwan, the number of mobile phone subscribers was about 29.2 million in 2018, based on a survey of the National Communications Commission (NCC, 2019). Besides, the penetration rate of the Internet has reached 82.1 %. The mobile Internet access has increased steadily every year, standing at 77.3 % in 2018, according to a survey by Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC, 2018). Mobile devices with the Internet have been closely related to various practices in our everyday life. In this sense, this study 6 considers the mobile network one of the most important social and cultural phenomenon in political participation to connect the past to the future in Taiwan’s society. Many scholars have developed different ideas
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