Making a Market Economy: The Institutionalizational Transformation of a Freshwater Fishery in a Chinese Community (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology and Culture)

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. Annotation This study investigates the rise and growth of a market economy in the Longlake region, Hubei province, China. Well known in China as the "land of fish and rice," the Longlake region has a long tradition of fresh water fishery. Yet, it is the last two decades of the twentieth century that have witnessed the dramatic transformation of fishery from subsistence oriented "sideline production" to a thriving market-oriented economy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study aims to examine the making of this burgeoning market economy, focusing on a set of vital economic institutions, including property rights and markets, as well as the changing organizational forms in fishery. Their evolution and the dynamics between them and the social, cultural, legal, and political settings in which both economic institutions and organizations are deeply embedded constitutes the main substantive theme of this study As a case study of economic transition, this project is primarily based on ethnography conducted in the Longlake region of Hubei province, China, during several field trips from early 1997 to late 1998. The setting Institution and economy The rise of fish markets A case study of property rights transformation A study of the firm