Brokers of Capital and Knowledge
The Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam/Amsterdam School for Social Science Research University of Amsterdam - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam announces a new research programme entitled: 'Brokers of Capital and Knowledge: Producer Services and Social Mobility in Provincial Asia (Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and India) 1960-2000'.By Mario Rutten
Asia's economic 'boom' and recent economic crisis have drawn attention, once more, to the connections between global processes and local transformations. In unprecedented ways, global economic integration, widening communication networks, and government policies supportive of private enterprise are changing opportunities for accumulating wealth, status and power, and redefine the avenues of social mobility. This process is accompanied by the development, throughout provincial Asia, of highly sophisticated services enterprises (such as banking, insurance, accountancy, consultancy, law firms, and business schools) which provide access to resources required for a profitable connection to the wider world. Much of the discussion on this 'reshaping' of Asian societies is dominated by political scientists and economists who trace changes in the distribution of capital and power at the national level, and by anthropologists who study local effects of entrepre-neurial and technological change.This programme will take a different track. It will focus on the key role played by producer services in channeling the widening (and recently: contracting) access to markets, capital, and commercial knowledge, and thus in shaping new business arenas and new patterns of social mobility. Geographically, it will focus on the provincial bridgeheads of this process -- provincial cities that are centres of commercial and industrial activity. Concentrating on the activities of producer services enterprises at the provincial level, and their personnel, offers a unique vantage point from which to analyse changing linkages between provincial societies and the global economy, and the effects of these changes on social mobility. Specifically the programme will focus on:
(1) the central role of the producer services enterprises as brokers of capital, knowledge, and commercial connections, which may contribute in vital ways to the rise of new entrepreneurial categories and/or the demise of existing ones;
(2) opportunities for social mobility within the expanding services sector itself, which may contribute to the development of new professi-onal classes in provincial societies.
Assessing the role of producer services as gate-keepers governing access to fundamental resources such as land, capital, labour, and knowledge demands an understanding of the manifold institutions and networks active in Asian cities under various political and economic regimes. It is within this context that the social impact of new challenges and opportunities must be placed. Knowledge, like the more tangible bases of production, must also be seen as a scarce resource, the control of which can generate both power and wealth. We distinguish at least two sorts of valuable knowledge - professional information and expertise, that enhances performance, and "insider" knowledge, essential to getting things done in a given political and social environment. Access to such knowledge is influenced by existing power structures, but its successful use also depends on the capacity for fast and flexible response to changing circumstances. Access to these resources is fundamental in deciding 'who gets what', but increasingly international markets impose new disciplines and reward new skills.
In particular this programme will explore the following hypotheses:
A) The impact of the services sector on mobility within the business community:
1) a 'polarization' hypothesis: established businessmen with contacts and capital are relatively quick to recognize the need for and benefits of new forms of access, and consolidate their position, thus creating a 'two tier' system of increasingly wealthy innovators versus increasingly isolated small business men; or:
2) an 'open economy' hypothesis: declining emphasis on political patronage or ethnic
networks, a more open market working with more neutral 'global' forms offers new men and women the chance to create their own connections and gain access to capital, markets and knowledge.
B) Mobility within the services sector:
1) the 'elite continuity' hypothesis: the successful personnel in this sector have moved from an already favoured position in terms of family background to dominate these new opportunities; or:
2) the 'new opportunities, new people' hypothesis: the sector offers an avenue for upward mobility by relatively unconnected people.
The programme consists of the following research projects:
Project 1: Brokers of human capital and high technology: FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) and APS (advanced producer services) in Asia, 1960-1998
Project 2: Brokers of industrial land: real-estate enterprises and the channelling of economic opportunities in industrial export zones in Metro Cebu, Philippines, 1960-2000
Project 3: New opportunities, old faces?: Non-banking financial companies and the business community in Ahmedabad, India, 1960-2000
Project 4: Bankers, networks, and patronage in an East Indonesian provincial town: finance and the business community in Ujung Pandang, 1965-2000
Project 5: Access and innovation: economic strategy and ethnic preference in Penang, Malaysia, 1960-2000
The research group that co-ordinates and supervises the programme (which will be carried out by two postdocs and three PhD candidates) consists of:
Participating members:
Dr P. Post, Section Culture, Organisation and Management of the Department of Cultural Anthropology/ Sociology of Non-Western Societies, Faculty of Socio-Cultural Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Dr M.A.F. Rutten, Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam, Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam.
Dr R.A. Rutten, Department of Cultural Anthropology/Sociology of Non-Western Societies,
Faculty of Political and Socio-Cultural Sciences, University of Amsterdam.
Prof. H.A. Sutherland, Section Non-Western History of the Department of Cultural Anthropology/Sociology of Non-Western Societies, Faculty of Socio-Cultural Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Prof. O.D. van den Muijzenberg
Co-ordinator
Department of Cultural Anthropology/Sociology of Non-Western Societies
Centre for Asian Studies Amsterdam (CASA)
Faculty of Political and Socio-Cultural Sciences
University of Amsterdam
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185
1012 DK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Email: muysot@mail.euronet.nl