Suspension

Seeking Agency for Change in the Hypermobile World

Bibliographic Data

ID2865451
AuthorsBiao Xiang (0000-0002-0405-2030)
Year2021
Volume94
Issue2
Pages233-250
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePacific Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379
PublisherPacific Affairs (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5509/2021942233
OpenAlexW3171821770
LanguageEN
Citations received59

Suspension" is the translation of the Chinese term xuanfu, which has been widely used in public discussions in China since the mid-2010s. Suspension indicates a state of being in which people move frequently, conduct intensive labour, and pause routine life-in order to benefit fast and then quickly escape. People keep moving, with no end in sight, instead of changing their current conditions, of which they disapprove. As a result, frantic entrepreneurial energy coexists with political resignation. Suspension is a life strategy, a multitude of experiences, a feeling-and now, a keyword: a crystallized consciousness with which the public problematize their experiences. This special issue develops this term into an analytical approach based on ethnographic research involving labour migrants in and from China. This approach turns migration into a basis for critical analyses on issues far beyond it; enables co-research between researchers, migrants, and the broader public; and seeks to cultivate agency for change among actors. This introductory essay, based on the author's long-term field research and public engagement, outlines why we need such an approach, and how we might develop it

Agency (philosophy · China · Consciousness · Energy (signal processing · Ethnography · Everyday life · Feeling · Field (mathematics · Field research · Multitude · Political science · Politics · Public life · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Suspension (topology · China's Global Influence and Migration · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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