Cultural Mobilization in Re-invigorating Rural Society in Taiwan: The Case of Wanbao Community

Abstract

Cultural mobilization matters in the process of reinvigorating rural development. Its effectiveness can be well promoted, as the public participation in the locality is included. This paper discuss the operative rationale of reinvigorating a rural society from the perspective of public participation and cultural mobilization, in particular, with a successful case study of the Wanbao Community in Taiwan. It seeks to explore how local governance works and meets its challenges by describing how a socioeconomically disadvantaged community has been able to fortify the main power supporting community development. Based upon the researchers’ fieldworks and in-depth interviews, this paper argues that the cultural mobilization of Wanbao experience turns agricultural development and agricultural products into a symbolic mechanism to resist the developmentalism driven by land expropriation, which overcomes the risk of community breakdown.