Agricultural Digitization and Zhongyong Philosophy (Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability)

This interdisciplinary book combines digital technology with Eastern philosophy to examine how the concept of Zhongyong in Confucianism can be used to coordinate digital technology with sustainable agriculture.

Zhongyong comes from the connotation of moderate and sustainable in ancient Chinese culture. It is with this concept in mind that this book presents a novel collaboration between philosophy and computer technology to explain how Zhongyong can play an important part in realizing agricultural digitization within a circular economy in order to help solve the current food crisis. The book examines two popular, yet contradictory, digital technologies―blockchain and the green data center. It showcases how the use of traditional Chinese Zhongyong can promote the decentralization of blockchain and the centralization of the green data center and explains the advantages of using both technologies simultaneously. The book puts forward a digital circular agricultural framework that embeds both blockchain and the green data center through an actual case study. While this book specifically focuses on agriculture, it also provides readers with a new perspective for thinking further on how to break down the disciplinary barriers between the social sciences and natural sciences.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agriculture, digital technologies, circular economy, sustainable development, and Eastern philosophy.

Yiyan Chen is a full-time PhD candidate in the School of Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is also a senior engineer in computer science and a senior economic engineer in business administration.

Hooi Hooi Lean is a professor of Economics in the School of Social Sciences at the Universiti Sains Malaysia. She received Malaysia’s Research Star Award in 2017 from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia and Clarivate Analytics and was listed in Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists.

Ye Li is an assistant professor in the College of Economic and Social Development at Nankai University, Tianjin, China.