The State and Life Chances in Urban China

The State and Life Chances in Urban China
Author: Xueguang Zhou
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2004-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781139442510

This book presents a systematic study of social stratification processes in urban China, from 1949 to 1994. Based on the life histories of a sample of urban residents from 20 Chinese cities, this book addresses two themes: (1) the interplay between redistribution and social stratification under state socialism in urban China, especially the impact of the state and state policies on individual life chances, in such areas as education, labor force participation, promotion in organizations, and the distribution of manifest and latent economic benefits; (2) an assessment of sources and extent of China's economic transformation since the 1980s. The author blends sociological analysis and sensitivity to the historical context in interpreting changes and continuity in the 45-year history of state socialist China. This is a comprehensive and rigorous study of social stratification in China.

Work and Inequality in Urban China

Work and Inequality in Urban China
Author: Yanjie Bian
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1994-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0791496724

This book offers a systematic analysis of the impact of work organization on the social stratification of individuals in urban China. It explains why economic and labor market segmentation is possible and necessary in state socialism at a certain stage of its development, as in market capitalism, and how important one's work unit or danwei is to the life of socialist workers in Chinese cities. Based on survey data, personal interviews, and official statistics, the author shows that structural allocation, status inheritance, educational achievement, political virtue, and interpersonal connections (guanxi) interplay in determining an individual's opportunities for entering and moving into a desirable place to work, for obtaining Communist party membership and an elite class status, and for receiving material compensation such as wages, bonuses, fringe benefits, housing, and home locations.

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism
Author: S. A. Smith
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199602050

Draws on documentation released since the fall of the Soviet Union to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century.

Inequality in Public School Admission in Urban China

Inequality in Public School Admission in Urban China
Author: Jing Liu
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2018-05-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811087180

This book explores and interprets discourses and practices in school admissions to public lower secondary education in urban China by utilizing a discourse analysis approach and a case study method. It identifies continuities and changes in discourses shaped by diverse forces in public lower secondary school admissions in the context of China’s social transformation from a profit-driven society to a more equitable society, and elucidates the power relationships among stakeholders in public school admissions by analysing their interplay in the process. More importantly, it exposes how current socio-economic, institutional and educational systems are shaping the engagement of stakeholders in the public school admissions process. It also presents some on-going projects intended to yield new policies and practices for more equitable public secondary education in China in the development stage of the post-2015.

Research Handbook on Inequalities in Later Life

Research Handbook on Inequalities in Later Life
Author: Catherine Earl
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-06-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789907241

This Research Handbook critically examines the myriad social and economic inequalities faced by those in later life. Contributors dissect examples from the Global North and South to support a new approach to studying ageing that moves beyond popular discourses.

Thirty Years of Reform and Social Changes in China

Thirty Years of Reform and Social Changes in China
Author: Qiang Li
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2010-08-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004187162

Thirty Years of Reform and Social Changes in China is translated from the original Chinese to provide a look into how scholars in China have been assessing their country's recent societal and political history. This volume and the others in the SSRC series, provide western scholars with an accessible English language look at the state of current scholarship in China on the interplay of the country's political and economic reforms with the society and daily life of its people.

Sociology for Change

Sociology for Change
Author: Yan-Jie Bian
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2007-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004157069

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies is the official annual of The Hong Kong Sociological Association. It publishes articles of original research that addresses theoretical, methodological, or substantive issues of sociological significance about social transformations in Chinese societies. The focus is mainly on Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the Mainland, Singapore, and Chinese overseas. Review essays of exceptionally high quality are also welcome. Book jacket.

Understanding Chinese Society

Understanding Chinese Society
Author: Xiaowei Zang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317422953

This second edition of Understanding Chinese Society provides a comprehensive, readable, and well-grounded introduction to the key issues affecting contemporary China. A thorough analysis is undertaken not only of China’s family patterns, education system, status, hierarchy, and ethnic diversity, but also of China’s mass media, legal system and social control, work, and cultural expression. As well as being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, this edition offers new chapters on urbanization, the environment, and civil society in China. A team of international experts guide students though social issues including: What are the key features of the family and marriage institutions in China? How are women and men faring differently in Chinese society today? How are minorities faring in China? How does the education system differentiate Chinese society? How are religion and cultural traditions expressed? Including handy pedagogical features such as a chronology of the People's Republic of China, further reading suggestions, and related novels and films, Understanding Chinese Society is suitable for anyone studying Chinese Culture and Society, Chinese Studies and Asian sociology.

Aspirational Chinese in Competitive Social Repositionings

Aspirational Chinese in Competitive Social Repositionings
Author: Jia Gao
Publisher: Anthem Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2023-08-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 183998290X

In the past four or so decades, a significant amount of research efforts has been made to examine the rapid and constant social changes in China. However, most of the literature has focused on either macro- or micro-level issues, and what has not been adequately analysed is how the majority of ordinary people has reacted to and influenced the changes. This inadequacy has affected our understanding of Chinese society, its dynamics and the changing trends. Drawing upon a new perspective of competitive social repositioning, and the evidence recorded in numerous recent publications and interview data, this book seeks to re-examine the ever-changing, but under-researched, societal dynamics driving social transformations in China from 1964, when the communist heir narrative was rebranded and utilised, to 2000, when Jiang Zemin formulated the Three-Represents theory to modify the ideological political thinking of China’s ruling elites. This analysis focuses on how a high proportion of aspirational citizens have kept repositioning themselves in China’s changing distributions of social resources and social structure, how their attitudes and behaviours have been shaped over time, what characteristics of their choices are at different stages, and how their preferences have resulted in the zig-zag patterns of China’s recent social change.