Heritagizing the Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system: Understanding agricultural heritage construction and sustainability in China using the actor-network theory = 從行動者網絡理論觀點探討農業文化遺產的建構和可持續性: 以浙江慶元香菇栽培系統為例
Project title
Heritagizing the Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system: Understanding agricultural heritage construction and sustainability in China using the actor-network theory = 從行動者網絡理論觀點探討農業文化遺產的建構和可持續性: 以浙江慶元香菇栽培系統為例
Principal Investigator
Department
Grant Awarding Body
Research Grants Council
Grant Type
Faculty Development Scheme
Project Code
UGC/FDS15/H06/21
Amount awarded
HK$588,307
Funding Year
2021-2022
Duration of the Project
24 months
Status
Completed
Abstract
This project aims to examine the role of a network of actors in constructing an ancient mushroom cultivation tradition in Qingyuan, Zhejiang, as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS), as well as its impact on the sustainability of the traditional agricultural knowledge system and cultural practices. In 2002, because of the global problem of the agricultural environment and food security, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched GIAHS to promote and conserve the wealth and breadth of accumulated traditional agricultural knowledge and culture as a globally significant treasure. Despite the aim of GIAHS being to identify and safeguard agricultural systems which sustain and conserve biodiversity and the genetic resources necessary for food and agriculture, rural livelihoods, and the systems of culture and knowledge, the selection and inscription process, as well as its cultural impact is a neglected research topic in China. This project will fill in the research gap, and will adopt a multi-site, mixed-method research approach to collect two-wave data to shed light on the issue of heritagization (heritage construction) and conservation in China.
In this proposed project, I plan to adopt Latour’s framework of ANT to understand heritage construction and sustainability of the century-old Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system. This study will be the first attempt to follow the heritage actors (scientists, government officers, and farmers) to understand heritage construction and conservation of a GIAHS in China. Deploying ANT rules, this project will examine the three key processes of heritage network building and management: enrolling actors, fact-building, and circulation of meaning. While many of the current studies on heritagization tend to focus on the separate interests and strategies of the stakeholders to achieve different goals, this project will follow the practices which the actors used to enroll and mobilize other actors, to bring them around to their points of view, to join their heritage network, to build up the seemingly “objective” scientific and agricultural “fact,” and lastly, to circulate the meaning surrounding the cultivation system, so as to construct and conserve it as the only globally-endorsed mushroom cultivation heritage system in the world.
This study will involve three groups of respondents: 15 scientists (in Beijing, Hong Kong, Jinlin, and Qingyuan), 15 Chinese officers (in Qingyuan), 15 mushroom farmers (in Qingyuan) who are involved, and another 15 farmers who are not involved in the Qingyuan mushroom heritage network. In-depth interviews will be conducted with the scientists and government officers, while ethnographic research and participant observation will be carried out with the farmers. This mixed-method research approach provides an opportunity to understand the heritagization process by collecting their oral histories with respect to identification and classification of certain features of the Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system as heritage, to its inscription as a nationally important agricultural heritage system and GIAHS, and how the heritagization process and sustainability is related to scientific research, government funding, and the bonding among the farmers, scientists, and government officers in the network.
In addition to making an academic contribution to the debate on the nature of heritage, the process of heritage construction, and its impact, by tracing the associations and daily activities of the actors in the heritage network, this study will have practical implication for agricultural and heritage policy-makers to formulate policies that will support bonding creation and collaboration among government officers, scientists, and farmers, thereby improving the economic and social status of the farmers, and conserving the disappearing traditional mushroom cultivation practices and culture in China.
In this proposed project, I plan to adopt Latour’s framework of ANT to understand heritage construction and sustainability of the century-old Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system. This study will be the first attempt to follow the heritage actors (scientists, government officers, and farmers) to understand heritage construction and conservation of a GIAHS in China. Deploying ANT rules, this project will examine the three key processes of heritage network building and management: enrolling actors, fact-building, and circulation of meaning. While many of the current studies on heritagization tend to focus on the separate interests and strategies of the stakeholders to achieve different goals, this project will follow the practices which the actors used to enroll and mobilize other actors, to bring them around to their points of view, to join their heritage network, to build up the seemingly “objective” scientific and agricultural “fact,” and lastly, to circulate the meaning surrounding the cultivation system, so as to construct and conserve it as the only globally-endorsed mushroom cultivation heritage system in the world.
This study will involve three groups of respondents: 15 scientists (in Beijing, Hong Kong, Jinlin, and Qingyuan), 15 Chinese officers (in Qingyuan), 15 mushroom farmers (in Qingyuan) who are involved, and another 15 farmers who are not involved in the Qingyuan mushroom heritage network. In-depth interviews will be conducted with the scientists and government officers, while ethnographic research and participant observation will be carried out with the farmers. This mixed-method research approach provides an opportunity to understand the heritagization process by collecting their oral histories with respect to identification and classification of certain features of the Qingyuan mushroom cultivation system as heritage, to its inscription as a nationally important agricultural heritage system and GIAHS, and how the heritagization process and sustainability is related to scientific research, government funding, and the bonding among the farmers, scientists, and government officers in the network.
In addition to making an academic contribution to the debate on the nature of heritage, the process of heritage construction, and its impact, by tracing the associations and daily activities of the actors in the heritage network, this study will have practical implication for agricultural and heritage policy-makers to formulate policies that will support bonding creation and collaboration among government officers, scientists, and farmers, thereby improving the economic and social status of the farmers, and conserving the disappearing traditional mushroom cultivation practices and culture in China.