With the ascendancy of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China began a program of agricultural reform intended to increase productivity. This detailed study examines what the author sees as the major changes which moved the sector from a centrally planned to a more market-oriented system--replacement of collective teams with household farming, an increase of free markets for rural products, an increased state price for agricultural products, and greater freedom to expand off-farm activities--changes in the economic structure which facilitated greater productivity. It is unique in its focus on a single township, providing new data on the effects of reform at the village level.
Based on interviews with rural Chinese women, officials and social scientists, and on Chinese newspapers, journals and academic reports. Analyses the situation of women of Han nationality with rural household registration, most of whom worked in townships and villages, but some of whom worked in cities. Delineates patterns in gender divisions of labour in the context of economic reform.
In short, Putterman connects the field of economics with other important spheres of life, building bridges of understanding that are too often absent in the study of economics.".
A detailed study of rural reform in China, which comprehensively covers Chinese rural development before and after the Mao and Deng reform eras, focusing on the township of Dahe.
This book examines one of the most important problems concerning Chinese civilization - how was the pattern of stability and continuity of Chinese society and economy achieved and maintained from approximately 800 to 1800. It uses the results of detailed, specialized research about the Chinese landholding system, marketing patterns, the role of the extended family therein, taxation and non-elite social groups in one specific locale to answer questions that historians of any civilization ask about the structure and functioning of a given society. The author has investigated the development of the Hui-chou community over a 1,000 year period by concentrating on six grand questions, each answered by one chapter. The answers to these questions, as given in this work, show that 'stability' is a dynamic concept. 'Continuity' in Hui- chou is the result of the 'changes' in population growth, commercialization, and class differentiation acting in concert over the long term.
Rural Transformations and Development China in Context is a thoughtful book in both senses penetrating and packed with ideas. True to its title, it takes the reader through the main socio-economic and political changes of Chinese rural society. The book brings together a selected group of authoritative, international experts on agricultural development with particular reference to China. It is a good read for everyone, and an eminently recommendable text for professionals and students interested in issues of China s rural change. Peter Ho, University of Groningen, The Netherlands This is an insightful and excellent theoretical and empirical collection about China s contemporary agrarian transformation critically studied not in isolation from either the urban sector or the broader world, but in relation to these. It is a must-read for academics and development policy practitioners who are interested in agrarian and development issues in China in particular and the world more generally. Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Saint Mary s University, Canada Bringing together contributions by some of the leading Western scholars working on paths of rural transformation with studies by their counterparts in China, this book examines the value of contemporary development theories for understanding the specificities of China s trajectory of change. It is a first-class contribution both to Modern China studies and to the renaissance of international research on agrarian change that is now going on. It deserves a wide readership. John Harriss, Simon Fraser University at Vancouver, Canada Interesting comparative perspectives are coupled to extensive on-the-ground research in this exploration of the vast changes underway in China s villages. This book by 19 specialists pushes forward our knowledge of the circumstances and challenges faced by an eighth of humankind. Jonathan Unger, Australian National University This unique book explores the varied perspectives on contemporary processes of rural transformation and policy intervention in China. The expert contributors combine a critical review of current theoretical viewpoints and global debates with a series of case studies that document the specificities of China s pathways to change. Central issues focus on the dynamics of state peasant encounters; the diversification of labour and livelihoods; out-migration and the blurring of rural and urban scenarios; the significance of issues of value and capital and their gender implications; land ownership and sustainable resource management; struggles between administrative cadres and local actors; and the dilemmas of participatory development. Rural Transformations and Development China in Context will prove a fascinating and stimulating read for academics and researchers in the areas of Asian studies, development and agriculture, and public policy.
In recent decades, China has undergone rapid economic growth, industrialisation and urbanisation concomitant with deep and extensive structural and social change, profoundly reshaping the country’s development landscape and urban-rural relationships. This book applies livelihoods approaches to deepen our understanding of the changes and continuities related to rural livelihoods within the wider context of political economy of development in post-socialist China, bridging the urban and rural scenarios and probing the local, national and global dynamics that have impacted on livelihood, in particular its mobility, security and sustainability. Presenting theoretically informed and empirically grounded research by leading scholars from across the world, this book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on issues central to rural livelihoods, development, welfare and well-being. It documents and analyses the processes and consequences of change, focusing on social protection of mobile livelihoods, particularly rural migrants’ citizenship rights in the city, and the environmental, social and political aspects of sustainability in the countryside. This book contributes to the current scholarly and policy debates, and is among the first attempts to critically reflect on China’s market transition and the associated pathways to change. It will be of interest to students in international development studies, China studies, social policy, public health, political science, and environmental studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as academics, policy makers and practitioners who are concerned with China’s human and social development in general, and agriculture and rural livelihoods in particular.
During the past quarter century Jonathan Unger has interviewed farmers and rural officials from various parts of China in order to track the extraordinary changes that have swept the countryside from the Maoist era through the Deng era to the present day. A leading specialist on rural China, Professor Unger presents a vivid picture of life in rural areas during the Maoist revolution, and then after the post-Mao disbandment of the collectives. This is a story of unexpected continuities amidst enormous change. Unger describes how rural administrations retain Mao-era characteristics - despite the major shifts that have occurred in the economic and social hierarchies of villages as collectivization and "class struggle" gave way to the slogan "to get rich is glorious." A chapter explores the private entrepreneurship that has blossomed in the prosperous parts of the countryside. Another focuses on the tensions and exploitation that have arisen as vast numbers of migrant laborers from poor districts have poured into richer ones. Another, based on five months of travel by jeep into impoverished villages in the interior, describes the dilemmas of under-development still faced by many tens of millions of farmers, and the ways in which government policies have inadvertently hurt their livelihoods.
The editors are grateful to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for its generous support of their research work which enabled them to publish the present book. The present book carefully maps the Chinese modernisation discourse, highlighting its relationship to other, similar discourses, and situating it within historical and theoretical contexts. In contrast to the majority of recent discussions of a “Chinese development model” that tend to focus more on institutional then cultural factors, and are more narrowly concerned with economic matters than overall social development, the book offers several important focal points for many presently overlooked issues and dilemmas. The multifaceted perspectives contained in this anthology are not limited to economic, social, and ecological issues, but also include political and social functions of ideologies and cultural conditioned values, representing the axial epistemological grounds of modern Chinese society. 2011 was the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. The centennial is relevant not only in terms of state ideology, but also plays a significant role within academic research into Chinese society and culture. This historic turning point likewise represents the symbolic and concrete linkages and tensions between tradition and modernity, progress and conservatism, traditional values and the demands for adjustment to contemporary societies. The book shows that Chinese transition from tradition to modernity cannot be understood in a framework of a unified general model of society, but rather through a more complex insight into the interrelations among elements of physical environment, social structure, philosophy, history, and culture.
