大湖草莓的社會資本與地方符號之研究

Abstract

大湖鄉為臺灣的草莓之鄉，其草莓種植面積與總產量皆遠高於其他鄉鎮，提到大湖便會想到草莓，「大湖」二字儼然形成一種符號，指向草莓。過去多從氣候環境的角度討論大湖鄉的區位優勢，然而這樣的論述並無法解釋與其氣候環境相近的鄉鎮為何無法成為另一個草莓之鄉。本研究以鑲嵌於地方社會中的社會資本及社會網絡做為取徑，討論大湖鄉如何與草莓產業產生連結，並從其田間管理及運銷通路來討論其在產銷環節上的優勢，最後以符號論述的角度看大湖的地方社會如何將「大湖」二字符號化，並從中壟斷對「草莓」的論述權，使其成為在草莓生產及符號論述中皆無法被取代的草莓王國。 本研究的研究成果如下：（一） 透過緊密的社會互動與交流，大湖的草莓農得以擁有穩定的生產要素供應輔助草莓產業發展；（二） 利用歷史脈絡、產量及規模脈絡、產銷網絡脈絡及休閒農業脈絡，大湖擁有了對草莓的壟斷性宣稱，再利用恆常、日常、非恆常亦非日常的符號意象強化物，使得「大湖」的所指直指「草莓」；（三） 利用社會網絡，大湖草莓農得接觸其所需要的生產要素，亦可擴散對於草莓的符號論述；利用社會資本，使大湖草莓農降低生產要素取得及擴散符號論述的困難，社會網絡及社會資本的運用，有助於大湖草莓農經營其草莓產業。This dissertation contributes to an understanding of why Dahu could become the kingdom of strawberries in Taiwan, using Social Network and Social Capital as approach. We discuss how the strawberries farming starting in Dahu, how the strawberries-farmers operate their businesses and selling of their products, and how Dahu making herself as the kingdom of strawberries in Taiwan with place-symbolization. The results of this dissertation come with 1. By intensive interaction and information exchange, farmers in Dahu could have sufficient productive factors to manage their business; 2. Under the context of history, business scale, produce-sale network and agricultural tourism, Dahu makes the monopoly claim of the strawberry business; 3. Using the social capital and social network embedded in Dahu, farmers could operate their businesses and share their opinion of their stories about their strawberries to the customers easily.