台湾的经济与学习:相对于宏观经济学的人类学视角

Learning and Economy in Taiwan

近年来,经济学家开始日益关注各种形式的学习——诸如获取与工作有关的先进技术,或学习如何更有效率地玩经济生活的“博弈”——对于经济后果的影响,然而,大多数关于相关主题的经验研究,都是以人为设计的、远离了大部分老百姓经济生活实况的实验为基础.本文通过将晚近的一些关于学习与经济的宏观经济学讨论联系到针对一个台湾家庭的民族志,从人类学的观点对这些讨论进行了一番省思,虽然像这类随机获取的民族志证据不可能真正推翻宏观经济学的论点,但它确实对后者提出了意味深长的问题,并且提示了进一步研究的途径.

In recent years,economists have increasingly paid attention to the question of how learning of various kinds-e.g.acquiring better job-related skills,or learning how to play the "game" of economic life more effectively-can influence economic outcomes.However,much of the empirical research on these themes has been based on artificial experiments very far removed from the economic lives of most ordinary people.This paper considers some recent macroeconomic discussions of learning and economy from an anthropological point of view,relating them to the ethnography of one Taiwan Residents family.Although random ethnographic evidence of this kind can’t really be said to undermine the macroeconomic claims,it does raise interesting questions about them,and suggests avenues for further research.