文化經濟與鄉村發展－以新竹新埔地區為例

Abstract

隨著近代文化經濟日益勃興，鄉村發展的概念無法再以傳統農業生產方式所指涉的鄉村性來詮釋，而是納入文化面向思考後，農業生產活動轉由以消費者想像與地方文化符號來建構其象徵價值，鄉村空間藉由象徵性為主的生產與消費行為，引發地域認同而形成文化地域，進而促使鄉村地區增值。本研究以地方行動者所建構的「文化地域」做為框架鄉村發展的理論概念，強調地方行動者藉由本身認知與外部資源挹注下轉化農業與鄉村資源為文化資源，實踐文化經濟的同時也形塑與強化「認同」的產生與存在，促成鄉村地方發展。 本研究以新竹新埔地區做為個案，透過次級資料呈現的歷史脈絡，以及深入訪談地方行動者與協力單位中介者，首先對照「新埔柑桔」與「新埔柿餅」兩者於不同時代脈絡下的興衰，試圖回答鄉村意象分化的議題，並進一步延伸「新埔柿餅節」近年轉化後的象徵意義；其二，分析「照門休閒農業區」的農業與鄉村資源商品化現象，具體展現文化經濟實踐的不同面向；其三，透過比較「新埔柿餅」與「照門休閒農業區」的各別行動者所建構的文化地域之差異，以闡述文化經濟下的鄉村發展。研究結果發現，透過文化經濟實踐，鄉村意象分化於空間上是地景意義的建構，農鄉資源商品化的過程亦以地景做為基礎，其中地方知識商品化成為區隔他者的關鍵；「新埔柿餅節」透過象徵意義的鞏固轉化為地方文化節慶，加深地方認同，而立基於地方認同的「文化地域」建構，則是仰賴地方行動者對於「地方」概念的認知，「新埔柿餅」與「照門休閒農業區」分別建構出不同的文化地域，顯示即使在同一地理範圍內，文化地域仍會產生分化。總結來說，「鄉村發展」以「文化經濟」來運作的關鍵前提是「認同」的建立，其可由改變、形塑、啟發地方行動者的文化「認知」著手。

With the agricultural and rural restructuring that comes with the global cultural economy, the new development of rural areas potentially associated with cultural properties has come to be significant. Within this context, more local and cultural resources have been mobilized and appropriated by agents to promote distinctiveness of locality, and local cultural capital have been centrally created to enhance place identities and to make rural regions revalorize. Using framework of cultural economy, this research examines the case of Hsinpu area. We first select representative agro-products, Citrus and Persimmon Cake in Hsinpu, and compare their developed trajectory to find the differences between them. The results demonstrate how Persimmon Cake in Hsinpu were symbolically reconstructed through the linking of territory image and food quality in last two decades and that had increasingly become a crucial basis for the development of Hsinpu area. We then analyze the discourses and actions performed by main groups of actor-networks centrally involved in the construction of cultural territory in Hsinpu Persimmon Cake and Jaumen Agriculture Area, with special emphasis on the know-how (local knowledge) and cognition performed by local agents, and ultimately seek to understand the key factors and processes that shape the identities of cultural territory. The research shows that, as the emergence of conceptual location rooted in agents’ capacity of cultural cognition to define their place, place identity could be built to enhance rural development. All these efforts devoted by local agents and intermediaries, including government and cooperation agency, that lead to the emergence of cultural territory which has become important stimulators of rural development in modern Taiwan.