【全球治理与发展青年讲坛（第3期）】【新发展知识讲坛（总第149期）】芯片与作物：中国农业数字化转型的反思
讲座题目：芯片与作物：中国农业数字化转型的反思
主讲人：王海潮 博士 英国伦敦大学学院数字人类学研究中心研究员
主持人：郇轶中 中国农业大学人文与发展学院/国际发展与全球农业学院副教授
讲座时间：2026年5月8日（星期五）9:00-10:30
讲座地点：中国农业大学（东校区）新图书馆7318室
讲座语言：中文
主讲人简介：王海潮，现任英国伦敦大学学院数字人类学研究中心研究员，毕业于伦敦大学学院人类学系，获人类学博士学位。她的研究主要沿着两个核心维度展开：其一，考察中国基层群体在日常社会实践中运用数字技术与人工智能的具体场景；其二，探究以人类学民族志方法介入人工智能伦理制定的可能性，由此反思技术与人文交汇处的可能路径。其学术成果见于牛津大学出版社、伦敦大学学院出版社及《Comparative Migration Studies》等出版物。王博士亦曾多次在欧盟社会人类学双年会、英国社会人类学年会，以及瑞士人类学年会等国际学术会议上作研究报告，并受剑桥大学、帝国理工学院，伦敦大学亚非学院，以及诺丁汉大学等高校进行学术报告。
讲座内容：本讲座将重新审视中国农业的技术变革，并对“传统农业最终会被更先进生产技术所取代”这一线性现代化叙事加以反思。讲座指出，农业技术的发展是一个漫长且充满张力的调试过程，其形态始终由生态条件、劳动力组织、国家干预、人口迁移以及农民实践知识共同形塑。讲座将重点围绕以下几个方面展开：（1）借鉴白馥兰（Francesca Bray）的论点，将中国农业技术视为一种社会性嵌入过程，由此提供更具纵深的历史框架；（2）以河南黄河平原花生收获机械化过程中农机企业与农民之间的合作为切入点，探讨机械、畜力与手工工具长期并存共生的复杂图景；（3）将视野扩展至当前国际农业技术研究，考察无人机、智能灌溉及数字化农业服务平台等如何成为全球农业发展的机遇与挑战；（4）最后，通过勾连这些历史的、地域的以及国际的技术节点，本讲座尝试展示数字技术如何可能成为农业发展与治理的新媒介。
Title: Chips and Crops: Rethinking the Digital Transformation of Agricultural Practice in China
Speaker: Haichao Wang, Research Fellow at Centre for Digital Anthropology, University College London (UCL), UK.
Time: 9:00-10:30, Friday, May 8, 2026
Venue: Room 7318, New library, East Campus of CAU
Language: Mandarin
Moderator: Yizhong Huan, Associate Professor at CIDGA/COHD, CAU
Introduction to the Speakers: Dr. Wang Haichao received her PhD from UCL’s Department of Anthropology and is now a Research Fellow at the Centre for Digital Anthropology. Her research unfolds along two core dimensions. The first examines how grassroots communities in China engage with digital technologies and artificial intelligence in their everyday social practices. The second explores the potential of ethnography to inform the ethical framework of AI, thereby reflecting on possible intersections between technology and the humanities. Her work has been published by Oxford University Press, UCL Press, and in journals such as Comparative Migration Studies. Dr. Wang has presented her research at major international conferences, including the Biennial Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), the ASA Conference (Association of Social Anthropologists), and the Annual Conference of the Swiss Anthropological Association. She has also been invited to give academic talks at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, SOAS University of London, and University of Nottingham.
Overview: This lecture examines agricultural technological change in China and offers a reflection on the linear modernisation narrative, which assumes that traditional farming will simply be replaced by more advanced production technologies. It reveals that agricultural technology development is a prolonged and contested process of negotiation, shaped by ecological conditions, labour organisation, state intervention, population migration, and farmers’ practical knowledge. The lecture will be unfolding through the following key areas:
(1) Drawing on the work of Francesca Bray, it approaches Chinese agricultural technology as a socially embedded process, offering a historically grounded framework for understanding technological change;
(2) Taking the mechanisation of peanut harvesting in the Yellow River Plain of Henan Province as a case study, it explores the collaboration between agricultural machinery firms and farmers, revealing a complex picture in which machines, animal power, and hand tools have long coexisted and co-evolved;
(3) Broadening the perspective to contemporary international research on agricultural technology, the talk examines how drones, smart irrigation, and digital agricultural service platforms have become both opportunities and challenges for global agricultural development;
(4) Finally, by connecting these historical, regional, and international technological nodes, the lecture seeks to show how digital technologies may serve as new mediators in the development and governance of agriculture.