Accounting: Drifts in governance
Published: 14 December 2021
5 January. Dr Junyuan Chen, Coventry University
Dr Junyuan Chen, Coventry University
'Drifts in governance: Evidence from the management of COVID-19 in China'
Wednesday 5 January, 1pm - 2:15pm
Zoom online seminar
Abstract
This paper examines the drifts of state governing strategies during pandemic of Covid-19. We link the construction and re-construction of governing apparatuses with Foucault’s theories of discipline and governmentality. Data is drawn from photo-interviews with 47 governors such as Chinese public officials and the governed such as citizens, and extensive review of secondary materials on China’s Covid-19 policies and reports. Our empirical analysis provides insights into how governing apparatuses deployed by Chinese government drifted during different stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. We found that the Chinese government initially exercised disciplinary power to enforce lockdown policy and collect bio-information of the individuals. Relying on the bio-information, medical experts generated medical knowledge of Covid-19 and circulate the knowledge to the population in the post-lockdown period. Technologies then were developed to set up a milieu to govern the regulated autonomies automatically. Our paper provides evidence of the drifting nature of governance in a disaster context by showing how governance is shaped and reshaped by the harmonious dialectics between disciplinary power (the effect of which is individualisation) and governmentality (the effect of which is totalisation), which acts upon the physicality and mentality of the population.
Biography
Junyuan Chen is a Lecturer in Accounting in the School of Economics, Finance and Accounting at Coventry University. He joined Coventry in February 2020 after completing his PhD in Management Accounting at the University of Glasgow. His thesis investigated how a hegemonic form of transfer pricing is emerged in a private organisation. His research employs a critical and interdisciplinary perspective with a focus on qualitative research methods. Junyuan's current research interest includes management accounting, accountability, governance and accounting professions.
Further information: business-events@glasgow.ac.uk
First published: 14 December 2021
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