[Chern.fsw] New publications on China in Europe

[Nyiri, P.D. (Pal)]

Congratulations, Lena, and thank you for letting us know.

By the way, I just finished Crafting a Tibetan Terroir by Brendan Galipeau, which discusses another interesting Swiss-Chinese entanglement: the history and present of viticulture in northwestern Yunnan.

Best,
Pál

NYÍRI Pál
Professor of Global History from an Anthropological Perspective
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
________________________________
Von: _list_chern.fsw-bounces <chern.fsw-bounces at listserver.vu.nl> im Auftrag von KAUFMANN Lena <lena.kaufmann at unifr.ch>
Gesendet: Freitag, 27. Juni 2025 10:53
An: _list_chern.fsw <chern.fsw at listserver.vu.nl>
Betreff: [Chern.fsw] New publications on China in Europe

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share some new ethnographic and historical publications related to China in Europe, all open access:

(1) ‎This is a chapter on the history and present of the Digital Silk Road to Europe, in particular to Switzerland, and the politics of (in)visibility. It is based on the example of internet cables and networks:

Kaufmann, Lena. 2025. “Prefiguring China’s Digital Silk Road to Europe: Connecting Switzerland.” In: Seeing China’s Belt and Road, edited by Edward Schatz and Rachel Silvey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 145–165. Download link to Accepted Author Manuscript: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-257849

(2) This is a methodological piece on the challenges, dilemmas and possibilities of ethnographically studying hard-to-access Chinese companies in Europe. It might work well for a methodological discussion with students:

Kaufmann, Lena. 2025. “Polymorphous Engagement with Global China: Researching Contested Chinese Companies in Western Europe.” Upcoming special issue on “Researching Global China”, Global China Pulse 4 (1) (online first):
https://globalchinapulse.net/polymorphous-engagement-with-global-china-researching-contested-chinese-companies-in-western-europe/

(3) This is a chapter on combining historical and anthropological methods and perspectives in studying transnational economic relations. It is part of a special issue I have co-edited on the intersection of social/cultural anthropology and contemporary history, in which each article has been co-authored by an anthropologist and a historian. This one is on Switzerland and China:

Kaufmann, Lena and Niklaus Remund. 2025. “Swiss-Chinese Entanglements: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on Transnational Economic Collaborations.” Zeithistorische Forschungen | Studies in Contemporary History 21 (2024/2025): 81–109. https://doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok-2865
Online first, link to pdf: https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/file/7024/download?token=S4tusb-E

For those who prefer to listen, apart from the ReConnect CHERN podcast<https://soundcloud.com/turun-yliopisto/reconnect-china-chern-podcast-chinas-digital-silk-road-to-switzerland> on the Digital Silk Road circulated earlier, here is a podcast in German on undersea cables and the vulnerabilities and resiliences of the Internet, with a focus on the Baltic Sea but also global. Part of it discusses Chinese activities in the field:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeVNf1Rg6JE

Apologies for the self-promotion, but I thought these publications might be of interest to a number of CHERN members.

I am looking forward to your thoughts and feedback!

Best wishes,

Lena


_______________________________________________

Dr. Lena Kaufmann (she/her)
SNSF Ambizione Fellow, Head of Ambizione project “Digital Agriculture<https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/216361>”
Department of Social Sciences, Social Anthropology Unit
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
lena.kaufmann at unifr.ch | www.unifr.ch/anthropos<http://www.unifr.ch/anthropos>

Regional Group China(s), German Anthropological Association
https://ethnologiechinas.org<https://ethnologiechinas.org/>


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