The Taiwan Studies Programme (TSP) is delighted a to announce a lunch-time Seminar by Dr Michelle Hsieh which is taking place on 11th June 2015 in the Si Yuan Centre, University of Nottingham.
This talk aims to illustrate some of the distinctive features of the Taiwanese development experience which tend to be overlooked when analysing Taiwan’s current industrial transformation. The conventional view depicts the hollowing out of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the key to Taiwan’s initial success, with the transition to high-technology industrialisation. Contrary to the pessimistic claims, however, Taiwanese SMEs have moved up the value-added ladder in various industries and continued to thrive as independent suppliers in a variety of global production networks.
This talk will address the sources of learning in the Taiwanese SME system and their resilience in the world market, drawing on the adaptation experience of the metal and machinery sector. It will conclude with a reconceptualisation of the development model and policy implications.
Biography: Michelle Hsieh is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. She received her PhD (in Sociology) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Her research interests fall within the areas of economic sociology, sociology of development, comparative political economy, and East Asian societies. Her current research explores the variations of industrial upgrading in Taiwan and East Asia and the consequences.
If you are interested in attending please reserve your place by emailing Lucy Taylor.