Jiang Anli, a PhD student from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS), University of Macau (UM), was recently nominated for the Best Student Paper Award at the 20th Urban China Research Network (UCRN) Conference, for her paper titled ‘Life Course and Blocked Vending Dreams: Understanding Street Vendors’ Drift in Criminal Economy in Guangzhou, China’.
Backed by three years of ethnographic fieldwork in Guangzhou, Jiang’s paper examines the impact of a city-wide campaign to crack down on street vending and the vendors’ consequent adaptations. The study has found that while the campaign has had little impact on some well-connected local vendors, it marked a turning point for some vendors who were forced to upgrade their skills and ended up in better occupations. However, for the majority of the vendors, their vending life has become more precarious, with some resorting to crime to make a living. The paper further explores how street vendors’ social, economic and cultural capital affect their different adaptions. This research study contributes to a better understanding of how a macro-structural anomic situation affects the life course of a marginal population and their drift in and out of criminal activities.
Held in Nanjing, this year’s conference attracted 180 scholars from around the world and received 50 PhD papers from different countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao. Jiang’s study was funded by a multi-year research grant from UM. Prof Xu Jianhua, associate professor and head of the Department of Sociology at UM, is the project’s principal investigator. A previous paper from this project, co-authored by Prof Xu and Jiang, titled ‘Police Civilianisation and the Production of Underclass Violence: the Case of Para-police Chengguan and Street Vendors in Guangzhou, China’, has been published in one of the top criminology journal The British Journal of Criminology (first issue, 2019).
The UCRN, initiated in 1999 by a group of researchers at the University at Albany, State University of New York, aims to promote multidisciplinary research through international conferences, discussions between faculty members and students, the establishment of work groups, and funding for promising projects. UCRN is now supported by many institutions and scholars around the world.
澳門大學社會科學學院社會學系博士生蔣安麗在“2019年中國城市研究網絡學術會議暨第二十週年會議”上發表學術論文《人生歷程與被中斷的謀生之路：廣州街頭攤販在犯罪經濟中的沉浮》，為流動人口在面對結構性困境時如何捲入犯罪活動的研究提供參考，獲頒“最佳論文提名獎＂。
該獲獎論文經過三年多的田野研究，探究了廣州清理街頭攤販的全城運動對攤販的影響及攤販的應對策略。研究發現，雖然攤販清理運動對極少部分資源優渥的攤販影響較小，卻成為一個轉折迫使其他攤販動員所有資源來應對這場攤販清理運動。過程中有少部分攤販獲得了改善生活的機會，而絕大部分的攤販則陷入更邊緣化的境地，甚至走上犯罪的道路。該論文揭示了攤販所擁有的社會資本、經濟資本和文化資本如何共同形塑差異化的應對方式，為流動人口在面對結構性困境時如何捲入犯罪活動的研究提供參考。
今屆會議在南京舉辦，規模盛大，吸引了180名來自世界各地的學者參與；其中，博士研究生論文比賽更是收到了共50篇來自美國、英國、加拿大、中國內地、香港及澳門等國家和地區學府的博士生論文。是次研究由澳大社會學系系主任徐建華的跨年度研究項目資助。徐建華及蔣安麗合著的文章《警務臨時工化與底層內部暴力的產生機制：基於中國廣州城管與攤販的研究》，發表於頂級犯罪學期刊《英國犯罪學雜誌》2019年第一期。
“中國城市研究網絡學術會議＂由美國紐約州立大學奧爾巴尼分校的學者於1999年創立，旨在通過國際會議促進學科間的了解與合作，為師生提供交流平台，建立研究小組，並對有潛力的研究提供資助。中國城市研究網絡受到來自全球各地眾多機構及傑出學者的支持。
Chi: https://www.um.edu.mo/zh-hant/news-centre/news-and-events/news-and-press-releases/detail/48372/#news_title
UM PhD student nominated for Best Student Paper Award for study on street vending
Eng: https://www.um.edu.mo/news-centre/news-and-events/news-and-press-releases/detail/48372/
News Bureau 新聞局
Website
Chi: https://news.gov.mo/detail/zh-hant/N19GSYoc4M?6
Eng: https://news.gov.mo/detail/en/N19GSYoc4M?7
Governmental Portal
(PhD Student Jiang Anli conducted field works in Guangzhou/ 博士生蔣安麗於廣州進行田野研究)