Blockchain Chicken Farm
Blockchain Chicken Farm

Author: Xiaowei Wang

Publisher: FSG Originals

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0374721254

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A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "A brilliant and empathetic guide to the far corners of global capitalism." --Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing From FSGO x Logic: stories about rural China, food, and tech that reveal new truths about the globalized world In Blockchain Chicken Farm, the technologist and writer Xiaowei Wang explores the political and social entanglements of technology in rural China. Their discoveries force them to challenge the standard idea that rural culture and people are backward, conservative, and intolerant. Instead, they find that rural China has not only adapted to rapid globalization but has actually innovated the technology we all use today. From pork farmers using AI to produce the perfect pig, to disruptive luxury counterfeits and the political intersections of e-commerce villages, Wang unravels the ties between globalization, technology, agriculture, and commerce in unprecedented fashion. Accompanied by humorous “Sinofuturist” recipes that frame meals as they transform under new technology, Blockchain Chicken Farm is an original and probing look into innovation, connectivity, and collaboration in the digitized rural world. FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech’s reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry’s many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.

Prosperity
Prosperity

Author: Jane Golley

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2018-04-09

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 1760462039

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A ‘moderately prosperous society’ with no Chinese individual left behind—that’s the vision for China set out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in a number of important speeches in 2017. ‘Moderate’ prosperity may seem like a modest goal for a country with more billionaires (609 at last count) than the US. But the ‘China Story’ is a complex one. The China Story Yearbook 2017: Prosperity surveys the important events, pronouncements, and personalitites that defined 2017. It also presents a range of perspectives, from the global to the individual, the official to the unofficial, from mainland China to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Together, the stories present a richly textured portrait of a nation that in just forty years has lifted itself from universal poverty to (unequally distributed) wealth, changing itself and the world in the process.

Digital agriculture in action
Digital agriculture in action

Author: Elbehri, A., Chestnov, R. (eds.)

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-12-22

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 9251351023

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This publication on artificial intelligence (AI) for agriculture is the fifth in the E-agriculture in Action series, launched in 2016 and jointly produced by FAO and ITU. It aims to raise awareness about existing AI applications in agriculture and to inspire stakeholders to develop and replicate the new ones. Improvement of capacity and tools for capturing and processing data and substantial advances in the field of machine learning open new horizons for data-driven solutions that can support decision-making, facilitate supervision and monitoring, improve the timeliness and effectiveness of safety measures (e.g. use of pesticides), and support automation of many resource-consuming tasks in agriculture. This publication presents the reader with a collection of informative applications highlighting various ways AI is used in agriculture and offering valuable insights on the implementation process, success factors, and lessons learnt.

Organic Food and Farming in China
Organic Food and Farming in China

Author: Steffanie Scott

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-03

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1351331353

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Despite reports of food safety and quality scandals, China has a rapidly expanding organic agriculture and food sector, and there is a revolution in ecological food and ethical eating in China’s cities. This book shows how a set of social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions have converged to shape the development of a "formal" organic sector, created by "top-down" state-developed standards and regulations, and an "informal" organic sector, created by ‘bottom-up’ grassroots struggles for safe, healthy, and sustainable food. This is generating a new civil movement focused on ecological agriculture and quality food. Organic movements and markets have typically emerged in industrialized food systems that are characterized by private land ownership, declining small farm sectors, consolidated farm to retail chains, predominance of supermarket retail, standards and laws to safeguard food safety, and an active civil society sector. The authors contrast this with the Chinese context, with its unique version of "capitalism with social characteristics," collective farmland ownership, and predominance of smallholder agriculture and emerging diverse marketing channels. China’s experience also reflects a commitment to domestic food security, evolving food safety legislation, and a civil society with limited autonomy from a semi-authoritarian state that keeps shifting the terrain of what is permitted. The book will be of great interest to advanced students and researchers of agricultural and food systems and policy, as well as rural sociology and Chinese studies.

Fourth Revolution and the Bottom Four Billion
Fourth Revolution and the Bottom Four Billion

Author: Nir Kshetri

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2023-04-18

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 0472903217

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Products and services based on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain are normally considered to be for rich consumers in advanced countries. Fourth Revolution and the Bottom Four Billion demonstrates how marginalized and vulnerable groups with limited resources can also benefit from these technologies. Nir Kshetri suggests that the falling costs and the increased ease of developing and deploying applications based on these technologies are making them more accessible. He illustrates how key emerging technologies are transforming major industries and application areas such as healthcare and pandemic preparedness, agriculture, finance, banking, and insurance. The book also looks at how these transformations are affecting the lives of low-income people in low- and middle-income countries and highlights the areas needing regulatory attention to adequately protect marginalized and vulnerable groups from the abuse and misuse of these technologies. Kshetri discusses how various barriers such as the lack of data, low resource languages, underdeveloped technology infrastructures, lack of computing power and shortage of skill and talent have hindered the adoption of these technologies among marginalized and vulnerable groups. Fourth Revolution and the Bottom Four Billion suggests that it is the responsibility of diverse stakeholders—governments, NGOs, international development organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and others—to ensure that marginal groups also benefit from these transformative innovations.

Online Urbanization
Online Urbanization

Author: Li Zi

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-04

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 9811336032

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This book highlights the new urban–rural relationship that has emerged under the influence of e-commerce in China. In this regard, it presents case studies on the Suichang rural e-commerce model and Alibaba’s rural strategy, together with analyses of online service in China. Furthermore, by means of a brief review of the urban–rural relationship throughout China’s history, and of academic literature on the study of space, it explains the special logic of urbanization in China. As such, the book makes a valuable contribution to the body of literature on the space of flows and grassrooting, aspects that are essential to appreciating the complexity of the new urban–rural relationship in underdeveloped areas (including developing countries and underdeveloped areas in developed countries) in the ongoing information era.

The Digital War
The Digital War

Author: Winston Ma

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1119748895

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What new directions in China’s digital economy mean for us all China is the largest homogenous digital market on Earth: unified by language, culture, and mobile payments. Not only a consumer market of unrivaled size, it’s also a vast and hyperactive innovation ecosystem for new technologies. And as China’s digital economy moves from a consumer-focused phase to an enterprise-oriented one, Chinese companies are rushing to capitalize on ways the newer wave of tech—the Internet of Things, AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and data analytics (iABCD)—can unlock value for their businesses from non-traditional angles. In China’s Data Economy, Winston Ma—investment professional, capital markets attorney, adjunct professor of digital economy, and bestselling author—details the profound global implications of this new direction, including how Chinese apps for services such as food delivery expand so quickly they surpass their U.S. models within a couple of years, and how the sheer scale and pace of Chinese innovation might lead to an AI arms race in which China and the U.S. vie aggressively for leadership. How China’s younger netizens participate in their evolving digital economy as consumers, creators, and entrepreneurs Why Online/Office (OMO, Online-merge-with-Offline) integration is viewed as the natural next step on from the O2O (Online-to-Offline) model used in the rest of the world The ways in which traditional Chinese industries such as retail, banking, and insurance are innovating to stay in the game What emerging markets can learn from China as they leapfrog past the personal computer age altogether, diving straight into the mobile-first economy Anyone interested in what’s next for Chinese digital powerhouses—investors, governments, entrepreneurs, international business players—will find this an essential guide to what lies ahead as China’s flexes new digital muscles to create new forms of value and challenge established tech giants across the world.

Digital agriculture report: Rural e-commerce development experience from China
Digital agriculture report: Rural e-commerce development experience from China

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-08-25

Total Pages: 64

ISBN-13: 9251345104

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This publication, produced by FAO and Zhejiang University, examines how rural e-commerce could advance the digital transformation of agri-food systems, including increasing production efficiency, expanding farmers’ market access, improving poverty alleviation, fostering agricultural entrepreneurship, and attracting young generations back to their villages for economic revival and rural revitalization. It is highlighted that an enabling ecosystem with favourable government policies and strategies, public-private partnerships and innovative business models is of great importance to accelerate the development of rural areas in China, and generate larger economic, social and environmental impacts. As the largest developing country in the world, the experience of digital agriculture transformation in China could be shared with other developing countries. The report also discusses some of the challenges encountered and lessons learned during the development of rural e-commerce, as well as the proposals for the way forward.

Cybercrimes and Financial Crimes in the Global Era
Cybercrimes and Financial Crimes in the Global Era

Author: Yanping Liu

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-08-12

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9811931895

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This book presents the latest and most relevant studies, surveys, and succinct reviews in the field of financial crimes and cybercrime, conducted and gathered by a group of top professionals, scholars, and researchers from China, India, Spain, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Russia. Focusing on the threats posed by and corresponding approaches to controlling financial crime and cybercrime, the book informs readers about emerging trends in the evolution of international crime involving cyber-technologies and the latest financial tools, as well as future challenges that could feasibly be overcome with a more sound criminal legislation framework and adequate criminal management. In turn, the book highlights innovative methods for combating financial crime and cybercrime, e.g., establishing an effective supervision system over P2P; encouraging financial innovation and coordination with international anti-terrorism organizations and multiple countries; improving mechanisms for extraditing and punishing criminals who defect to another country; designing a protection system in accordance with internationally accepted standards; and reforming economic criminal offenses and other methods that will produce positive results in practice. Given its scope, the book will prove useful to legal professionals and researchers alike. It gathers selected proceedings of the 10th International Forum on Crime and Criminal Law in the Global Era (IFCCLGE), held on Nov 20–Dec 1, 2019, in Beijing, China.

Global Urban Agriculture
Global Urban Agriculture

Author: Antoinette M G A WinklerPrins

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2017-05-24

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1780647328

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There has been growing attention paid to urban agriculture worldwide because of its role in making cities more environmentaly sustainable while also contributing to enhanced food access and social justice. This edited volume brings together current research and case studies concerning urban agriculture from both the Global North and the Global South. Its objective is to help bridge the long-standing divide between discussion of urban agriculture in the Global North and the Global South and to demonstrate that today there are greater areas of overlap than there are differences both theoretically and substantively, and that research in either area can help inform research in the other. The book covers the nature of urban agriculture and how it supports livelihoods, provides ecosystem services, and community development. It also considers urban agriculture and social capital, networks, and agro-biodiversity conservation. Concepts such as sustainability, resilience, adaptation and community, and the value of urban agriculture as a recreational resource are explored. It also examines, quite fundamentally, why people farm in the city and how urban agriculture can contribute to more sustainable cities in both the Global North and the Global South.