Rural Livelihoods in China: Political economy in transition

236 Pages·2015·6.762 MB·English

by  Heather Xiaoquan Zhang

Rural Livelihoods in China
In recent decades, China has undergone rapid economic growth, industrialisa-
tion 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 the 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 lead-
ing scholars from around the world, this book offers multidisciplinary perspec-
tives on issues central to rural livelihoods, development, welfare and well-being.
It documents and analyses the processes and consequences of change, focusing
on the social protection of mobile livelihoods, particularly rural migrants’ citi-
zenship rights in the city, and the environmental, social and political aspects of
sustainability in the countryside.
Rural Livelihoods in China 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
of 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.
Heather Xiaoquan Zhang is Senior Lecturer in Chinese Social Studies at the
University of Leeds, UK.
Routledge explorations in Development Studies
This Development Studies series features innovative and original research at the
regional and global scale.
It promotes interdisciplinary scholarly works drawing on a wide spectrum of
subject areas, in particular politics, health, economics, rural and urban studies,
sociology, environment, anthropology, and conflict studies.
Topics of particular interest are globalization; emerging powers; children and
youth; cities; education; media and communication; technology development;
and climate change.
In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any orthodoxy, the
series draws broadly on the tool kit of the social sciences in general, emphasizing
comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of
qualitative and quantitative methods.
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Erik Lundsgaarde
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Katja Bender, Markus Kaltenborn and Christian Pfleiderer
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Technology Development Assistance for Agriculture
Putting research into use in low income countries
Norman Clark, Andy Frost, Ian Maudlin and Andrew Ward
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Victoria Redclift
Governance for Pro-Poor Urban Development
Lessons from Ghana
Franklin Obeng-Odoom
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John R. Campbell
HIV and east Africa
Thirty years in the shadow of an epidemic
Janet Seeley
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Edited by Ole Winckler Andersen, Beate Bull and Megan Kennedy-Chouane
Digital Technologies for Democratic Governance in Latin America
Opportunities and risks
Edited by Anita Breuer and Yanina Welp
Governance Reform in Africa
International and domestic pressures and counter-pressures
Jérôme Bachelard
economic Development and Political Action in the Arab World
M. A. Mohamed Salih
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Edited by Gabriele Koehler and Deepta Chopra
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Julia Bader
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Rural Livelihoods in China
Political economy in transition
Edited by Heather Xiaoquan Zhang
“Rural Livelihoods in China challenges us to transcend modernist frameworks in
the analysis of China’s massive historical transformation and its attendant social
development issues. By examining the struggle over rural livelihoods in China
through the double lens of sustainability and mobility, this superb collection
eloquently demonstrates why debates on China should move to the center stage
in mainstream and critical debates on development alike. Through careful
empirical research, policy analysis, and far-sighted theoretical argumentation,
successive chapters accomplish a significant rearticulation of established concepts
in livelihood analysis. What emerges from these pages, in the last instance, is a
much enriched and transformed view of both Chinese studies and development
theory and practice.”
Arturo escobar,
University of North Carolina, USA
“This collection by leading scholars urges us to critically rethink the taken-for-
granted urban-biased development and modernization discourse that has been
dominating China’s development for decades. It invites all readers to think
deeply about a basic question, that is, what kind of life rural people really want?
And what kind of countryside a developmental state could allow rural people to
have?”
Jingzhong Ye,
China Agricultural University, China
“Without losing sight of the specificities of each case in China’s historical and
social contexts, chapters in this collection subject a range of timely topics to
analytical interrogation from the livelihood perspective. This is a book that
offers rich empirical details and insightful theoretical discussions for both China
experts, and students and scholars in development studies.”
Qian Forrest Zhang,
Singapore Management University, Singapore
Rural Livelihoods in China
Political economy in transition
edited by Heather Xiaoquan Zhang
First published 2015
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Heather Xiaoquan Zhang
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rural livelihoods in China : political economy in transition / edited by
Heather Xiaoquan Zhang.
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Rural development–China. 2. Labor market–China. 3. Rural-urban
migration–China. 4. China–Rural conditions. 5. China–Economic
conditions. I. Zhang, Heather Xiaoquan.
HN740.Z9C66866 2015
307.1’2120951–dc23
2014036184
ISBN: 978-0-415-84467-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-75074-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Cenveo Publisher Services
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables x
Notes on contributors xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction: rural livelihood transformation and
political economy in China 1
HEATHER XIAOQUAN ZHANG
PART I
Mobility and livelihoods 19
2 Migration, risk and livelihood struggles in China 21
HEATHER XIAOQUAN ZHANG
3 Social protection and livelihoods: providing old-age
social insurance for migrant workers in China 48
ANDREW WATSON
4 Sustaining livelihoods in urban villages: health risks
and health strategies among rural-to-urban
migrants in China – the case of Guangzhou 74
BETTINA GRANSOW
5 Legal activism or class action? The political economy of
the “no boss” and “no labour relationship” in China’s
construction industry 93
NGAI PUN AND YI XU
viii Contents
PART II
Sustainable livelihoods 109
6 Biotech politics in an emerging economy: is China
a developmental risk society? 111
JENNIFER H. ZHAO, PETER HO, DAYUAN XUE AND JAC. A. A. SWART
7 Small cotton farmers, livelihood diversification
and policy interventions in Southern Xinjiang 131
MAX SPOOR, XIAOPING SHI AND CHUNLING PU
8 Rural finance and development in China: the state
of the art and ways forward 151
HEATHER XIAOQUAN ZHANG AND NICHOLAS LOUBERE
9 The effects of political recentralisation on rural livelihoods
in Anhui, China 175
GRAEME SMITH
10 From taxing to subsidising farmers: designing and
implementing the “four subsidies” in China 195
LOUIS AUGUSTIN-JEAN AND YE WANG
Glossary of Chinese terms 215
Index 218
Figures
2.1 The proportions of major occupational illnesses in China, 2002 30
4.1 An urban village in Guangzhou 76
5.1 The subcontracting system 96
7.1 Change in cotton prices, 1999–2010 (yuan per tonne) 139