In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity

Offers an analysis of the dynamics of Taiwan's export-oriented industrialization, particularly its impact on women and other workers.Since the 1980s Taiwan has grown into a global manufacturing powerhouse, a model of success that has inspired emulation throughout the developing world. Yet at the very peak of this expansion, Taiwan began to feel squeezed by changes both domestically and internationally. In the Name of Harmony and Prosperity examines Taiwan's economic restructuring since the late 1980s. Anru Lee discusses the latest phase of Taiwan's socio-economic development, most importantly the dialectical relationship between its export-oriented industrialization, change in production processes, and discourse on work ethics, including the subject formation of women workers as it relates to conditions in the global economy. At the center of this study is the process by which labor-capital relations become fair and legitimate, and how they contribute to our understanding of Asian capitalism and its role in the world economy.Anru Lee is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. She is the coeditor (with Catherine Farris and Murray A. Rubinstein) of Women in the New Taiwan: Gender Roles and Gender Consciousness in a Changing Society .