Commodifying Communism

Rating:
Summary: Informative about Chinese entrepreneurial culture
Review: This book does a good job of describing typical small business activity in a city that the author lived in for a couple of years.
I have long been puzzled by the reports that China has a booming economy in spite of widespread corruption and hardly any rule of law, when those problems seem to ensure poverty elsewhere.
This book does a good deal to resolve this mystery. It suggests that Fukuyama's claim that "there is a relatively low degree of trust in Chinese society the moment one steps outside the family circle" is misleading because the Chinese notions of family ties aren't as rigid as in the west. Family-style trust is more like a commodity that can be readily acquired by most people who have decent reputations, via friend of a friend type connections between people. And the networks of reputation do well at ensuring the reasonableness of corrupt or arbitrary actors.
It would be nice if we could copy the good parts of these aspects of Chinese culture, but I suspect that's as hard as copying the social capital that Fukuyama describes in his book Trust.

Rating:
Summary: Providing a Context to Understand Economic Embeddedness
Review: Economic activities are embedded in social relation. In his criticism of economics, Mark Ganovetter (1985) pointed out the "atomised and undersocialised view of human action" held by neoclassical economics tended to undermine the role of institutions on economic activities. This view of embeddedness has long been noted by economic sociologists (Ganovetter, 1985; Dacin, Ventresca, Beal, 1999) which theorised organisational embeddedness.

Prof. Wank's interesting book "Commodifying Communism" provides an excellent context for readers to understand the concept of economic embeddedness. Drawing from years of ethnographic research in Xiamen, the author vividly illustrated how institutions both formal and informal collectively influence the cognition and behaviour of agents during the process of transformation. Observation in the field led to what the author believed institutional commodification of Communism which as a process refutes simplistic views on market transition.

Methodologically, the multidisciplinary approach adopted by the author not only successfully integrates sociology into institutional analysis but also skilfully incorporates different theories into an eclectic paradigm. Practically, the book also sheds lights into the business process and culture in southern China and helps readers to understand the context Chinese business.

As a reader from Xiamen, I felt familiar with various characters described in the book and wondered whether they had managed to survive the latest anti-corruption campaign centre-staged there. The ethnographic approach adopted by the author possesses much power of story telling, and as a result, the research had not drained analysis of life compared with the formalist's account on China. Methodologically, the deconstruction of language truthfully illustrated how norms, values and belief were construed and constructed by various actors. Indeed, one strength of this book that I found particular enlightening is its power to reveal what most Chinese would think as "common sense" but turns out to be incomprehensible to most foreigners.

Theoretically, these penetrating insights have helped distinguish the "institutional commodification account" from the normativism of political economy. I consider these aspects thoughtful and revealing, trully capable of providing an distinctive informal approach to conventional analysis. This approach not only acknowledges the importance of social institution beyond market but also highlight the degree of complexity in transitional economies.

Structurally, the book consists of three parts. Part one familiarises readers with contenting arguments, outlines the research design and introduces its central argument: 'institutional commodification'. Part two explores the process of commodification in the context of agents' behaviour response to formal and informal institutions. Finally in Part three some interesting comparison were made between China and Eastern Europe while the major argument was further pursued in the context of politics, economics and sociology. The time scale of research was set in one of most dramatic period in modern China demarcated by the event in 1989.

The institutional commodification account is certainly an innovation in the sense that it captures the reality and dynamics of growth and most importantly presenting the complexity in its wider social context of network. Indeed, I really admire the angle where the author choosed to present the context of arguement. From there, the reader may appreciate how ingrained value, belief and relations have collectively shaped the process of transformation.

Rating:
Summary: Providing a Context to Understand Economic Embeddedness
Review: Economic activities are embedded in social relation. In his criticism of economics, Mark Ganovetter (1985) pointed out the "atomised and undersocialised view of human action" held by neoclassical economics tended to undermine the role of institutions on economic activities. This view of embeddedness has long been noted by economic sociologists (Ganovetter, 1985; Dacin, Ventresca, Beal, 1999) which theorised organisational embeddedness.

Prof. Wank's interesting book "Commodifying Communism" provides an excellent context for readers to understand the concept of economic embeddedness. Drawing from years of ethnographic research in Xiamen, the author vividly illustrated how institutions both formal and informal collectively influence the cognition and behaviour of agents during the process of transformation. Observation in the field led to what the author believed institutional commodification of Communism which as a process refutes simplistic views on market transition.

Methodologically, the multidisciplinary approach adopted by the author not only successfully integrates sociology into institutional analysis but also skilfully incorporates different theories into an eclectic paradigm. Practically, the book also sheds lights into the business process and culture in southern China and helps readers to understand the context Chinese business.

As a reader from Xiamen, I felt familiar with various characters described in the book and wondered whether they had managed to survive the latest anti-corruption campaign centre-staged there. The ethnographic approach adopted by the author possesses much power of story telling, and as a result, the research had not drained analysis of life compared with the formalist's account on China. Methodologically, the deconstruction of language truthfully illustrated how norms, values and belief were construed and constructed by various actors. Indeed, one strength of this book that I found particular enlightening is its power to reveal what most Chinese would think as "common sense" but turns out to be incomprehensible to most foreigners.

Theoretically, these penetrating insights have helped distinguish the "institutional commodification account" from the normativism of political economy. I consider these aspects thoughtful and revealing, trully capable of providing an distinctive informal approach to conventional analysis. This approach not only acknowledges the importance of social institution beyond market but also highlight the degree of complexity in transitional economies.

Structurally, the book consists of three parts. Part one familiarises readers with contenting arguments, outlines the research design and introduces its central argument: `institutional commodification'. Part two explores the process of commodification in the context of agents' behaviour response to formal and informal institutions. Finally in Part three some interesting comparison were made between China and Eastern Europe while the major argument was further pursued in the context of politics, economics and sociology. The time scale of research was set in one of most dramatic period in modern China demarcated by the event in 1989.

The institutional commodification account is certainly an innovation in the sense that it captures the reality and dynamics of growth and most importantly presenting the complexity in its wider social context of network. Indeed, I really admire the angle where the author choosed to present the context of arguement. From there, the reader may appreciate how ingrained value, belief and relations have collectively shaped the process of transformation.