Table Of ContentDGIEGNITDAELR E ANNTDR IENPTREERNSEEUCRTSIOHNIPA, LITY
An East Asian Perspective
Leung Wing-Fai
Dynamics of Virtual Work
Series Editors
Ursula Huws
Hertfordshire Business School
Hatfield, UK
Rosalind Gill
Department of Sociology
City University London
London, UK
Technological change has transformed where people work, when
and how. Digitisation of information has altered labour processes out
of all recognition whilst telecommunications have enabled jobs to
be relocated globally. ICTs have also enabled the creation of entirely
new types of ‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ labour, both paid and unpaid, shift-
ing the borderline between ‘play’ and ‘work’ and creating new types
of unpaid labour connected with the consumption and co-creation of
goods and services. This affects private life as well as transforming the
nature of work and people experience the impacts differently depend-
ing on their gender, their age, where they live and what work they do.
Aspects of these changes have been studied separately by many different
academic experts however up till now a cohesive overarching analytical
framework has been lacking. Drawing on a major, high-profile COST
Action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Dynamics
of Virtual Work, this series will bring together leading international
experts from a wide range of disciplines including political economy,
labour sociology, economic geography, communications studies, tech-
nology, gender studies, social psychology, organisation studies, indus-
trial relations and development studies to explore the transformation of
work and labour in the Internet Age. The series will allow researchers to
speak across disciplinary boundaries, national borders, theoretical and
political vocabularies, and different languages to understand and make
sense of contemporary transformations in work and social life more
broadly. The book series will build on and extend this, offering a new,
important and intellectually exciting intervention into debates about
work and labour, social theory, digital culture, gender, class, globalisa-
tion and economic, social and political change.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14954
Leung Wing-Fai
Digital
Entrepreneurship,
Gender and
Intersectionality
An East Asian Perspective
Leung Wing-Fai
King’s College London
London, UK
Dynamics of Virtual Work
ISBN 978-3-319-97522-1 ISBN 978-3-319-97523-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97523-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950413
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt
from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein
or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover image: © sceka/Getty Images
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Taiwan Fellowship, which enabled my stay
in Taipei for three months in 2014. I was a visiting scholar hosted by
the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, in Taipei during those three
months and again from January to August 2016. I sincerely thank the
staff of the Institute, and especially Professor Chang Chin-fen, for sup-
porting the periods of fieldwork that formed the foundation of this
research project, and for giving me valuable feedback on the issue of
gender in the Taiwanese context.
I would like to acknowledge the peer review and insightful comments
from Professor Chang Chin-fen, Dr. Sophie Frost, Dr. Alessandro
Gandini and Dr. Juliet Webster. However, any shortcomings and mis-
takes are my own.
I also thank colleagues in the School of Asian Studies, University
College Cork (UCC), Ireland, especially the late Professor Jackie
Sheehan for her support during my tenure at UCC. The COST Action
Dynamics of Virtual Work network (2012–2016), led by the tireless
Professor Ursula Huws, was instrumental in prompting and encourag-
ing my research in this subject area. I was inspired by the wonderful
conversations I had during meetings with colleagues whose expertise
v
vi Acknowledgements
was inspirational. Thank you to the series editors, Professor Huws and
Professor Rosalind Gill, and the great team at Palgrave Macmillan for
their faith in the value of this monograph.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the Department of Culture, Media and
Creative Industries, King’s College London (KCL). Without the gener-
ous interest my colleagues have shown in my research, the writing pro-
cess may have been a lonely one. The Publication Subvention Grant
(2017–2018) from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at KCL funded
additional editorial help.
I would also like to thank all from the startup community in Taiwan
and Hong Kong who have generously given of their time to speak to
me about their work and life. This study would not have been possible
without their openness and enthusiasm.
As always, thanks to the support of Benjamin J. Heal and Audrey
P. Y. Heal, without whom none of this research and writing would ever
get done.
This book is dedicated to my mother, Law Wan Tai (1936–2016),
whose spirit and sense of duty exemplified women’s independence and
strength. I have learned from her my entire life.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Studying Entrepreneurs 5
Focusing on Taiwan 8
The Taiwanese Society and Women 12
Restructuring and Change in East Asia 15
The Startup Environment and the Traditional Tech Sector 18
Gender and Intersectionality 26
Research Strategy and Methods 32
Concluding Remarks 34
References 36
2 Family Metaphor, the Geek and the Entrepreneurial Ideal 45
Introduction 45
Network and a Gendered Sector in the East Asian Contexts 48
Entrepreneurship and the Family 54
Network, Close Ties and the Nerd 62
The Entrepreneurial Ideal 69
Concluding Remarks 78
References 80
vii
viii Contents
3 Girls in Tech: Progress and Barriers in a Gendered Culture 85
Introduction 85
Gendered Culture and Entrepreneurship 86
Women and Technology in Taiwan 91
The Female Entrepreneurs 94
The Gender Discourse Among Start-Uppers 105
Intersectionality: Gender, Age and Class 114
Concluding Remarks 116
References 119
4 Luxury Chairs and Pizzas: The Production of Social
Spaces and Class 125
Introduction 125
The High-Tech Sector and the Startup Ecosystem:
The Context 132
Spatial Practices 139
Concluding Remarks 153
References 157
5 Cool, Creative, But Not so Equal 161
Introduction 161
Critical Discourses on Gender and Technology 164
Challenging Careers in Silicon Valley 169
The Priestesses of Global Technology 178
Concluding Remarks 184
References 192
6 Conclusions 197
The Times They Are a-Changing 197
The Generations 201
Digital Entrepreneurship, Intersectionally 208
Digital Entrepreneurship: An East Asian Perspective 214
References 218
Index 221
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Breakdown of entrepreneurs by gender and marital status,
2014 46
Fig. 4.1 Open Lab, maker space with shelves and boxes jam packed
with materials and equipment 151
Fig. 6.1 Age distribution of entrepreneurs, 2014 and 2016 202
ix
