Course code SCIL11034: China s Contemporary Transformations

Transcription

1 University of Edinburgh School of Social and Political Science Sociology PG Option Course code SCIL11034: China s Contemporary Transformations Semester 2 (Winter) 2018 Class times: Friday :00pm Location: 4.3 Lister Building Lister Learning and Teaching Centre Course Organiser: Dr Sophia Woodman Office: 3.09, 18 Buccleuch Place Sophia.Woodman@ed.ac.uk Guidance and Feedback Hours: Thursday or by appointment 1

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE COURSE... 3 Overview... 3 Organization and expectations... 3 Class participation... 3 Intended learning outcomes... 4 Assessment... 5 PRACTICAL MATTERS... 6 Communication... 6 WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE AND ACTIVITIES... 7 ASSIGNMENTS AND HOW TO DO THEM I. Book review assignment (20% of mark) II. Essay outline or abstract (15% of mark) III. Final essay (50% of mark, includes 5% for incorporating feedback exercise) IV. Group work (15% of mark) Planning and writing your assignments

3 ABOUT THE COURSE Overview China has undergone 150 years of tumultuous change, yet contemporary social and political conditions are often explained with reference to Chinese tradition. With a starting point in 20th century projects that sought to bring about radical transformation in China, as well as thinking about the relationships between culture, the collective and the individual, this course will consider continuity and change in contemporary mainland China through the following themes: social class;; gender relations;; internal migration;; the current phase of rapid urbanization;; and social movements associated with these four themes. Through these themes, the course will identify perspectives on pathways to change, as well as factors of continuity in social and political life. Organization and expectations This Sociology course meets for one three-hour session per week. The instructor is Dr Sophia Woodman. The course will incorporate a range of teaching methods, including lectures, small group and whole class discussions and watching and discussing excerpts from documentary films made by Chinese film-makers to aid in developing a sense of daily life and specific contexts in contemporary China. Students registered for the course are expected to: attend the weekly class regularly and punctually;; make an active contribution to group discussions and exercises in class;; read all the Essential readings for each session and prepare bullet points and questions for discussion on these;; attend the five additional tutorials for PG students;; and complete assessed coursework on time. Class participation Class participation takes a number of forms, including general discussions and group exercises. You are expected to be ready to listen, ask questions and comment constructively and respectfully on the contributions of others. Lively debate is welcome;; sexist, racist, homophobic and intemperate language is not. You will find our protocol on Learn and in PG handbooks. Class discussions: Most weeks, everyone will be involved in general class discussions. Please make sure you have read the key readings based on which discussions will take place. Documentary viewing & discussion: We will be watching documentary films made by independent filmmakers in China in class every week. The screening will be followed by discussion of the film. If you want to watch the films on your own, some are available on live streaming video, for borrowing from the Library and some are in the Languages and Humanities Centre, searchable through VIDCAT. Links to these resources are posted in the class Resource List: 3

4 Intended learning outcomes The main aim of this course will be to learn about and critically analyse processes of social change occurring in contemporary Chinese society from a sociological perspective, particularly reflecting on the interplay between engineered (from above) and organic (from below) social change in shaping current patterns of social life. This knowledge and analysis will enable an assessment of different theories about why social change happens and what are its consequences. The course aims to support students in developing and enhancing their skills in analysis, research and communication, as well as using feedback to improve their work. Having taken this course, students should be able to: 1. Develop a sophisticated sociological perspective on some important features of contemporary society in mainland China, including the relation of contemporary patterns of social phenomena to historical processes;; 2. Generate creative and original approaches to analysing these phenomena;; 3. Develop and demonstrate the ability to communicate these approaches clearly in written work, including in different genres of writing;; 4. Understand and apply in a critical fashion key concepts, themes and questions related to selected reading and facilitate discussion among peers;; and 5. Incorporate feedback on an essay plan to improve finished written work. 4

5 Assessment The course will be assessed as follows: Assessment Book review Group work Essay outline or abstract Final essay Word count limit: Do not exceed the word limit or penalties will be applied words max (excluding bibliography) Group literature review on Pebble+, including word blog post At least 2 pages, max 750 words (excluding bibliography) words max (excluding bibliography) Weighting 20% Submission date 12/2/18 (all coursework is due at 12 noon on the date of submission) Return of feedback 5/3/17 15% 2/4/18 23/4/18 15% 12/3/18 2/4/18 50% (including 5% for incorporating feedback exercise) 19/4/18 10/5/18 For assessment requirements you should consult the Taught MSc Student Handbook This is available on Learn. Requirements included are: Coursework submissions Extension request Penalties Plagiarism For more details, see Assignments and how to do them, below. The External Examiner for this course is: Professor Siniša Malešević of University College, Dublin. 5

6 PRACTICAL MATTERS Communication Notices about the course will be posted on the course Learn webpage. Please make sure that you regularly check the Announcements section of the course pages. From time to time we will you, using your University address. It is your responsibility to check this regularly, even if it is not your usual address. You can set up an auto-forward facility to ensure all mail sent to your university account is forwarded to your usual address. You are encouraged to use the Discussion Board of the course Learn site to post comments on the readings, questions you have about topics we are discussing and links to interesting articles or resources you ve found. So this material can be organized and useful to all of us, if you start on a new topic, please open a new thread. All course readings and some additional resources are available on ResourceLists, which will provide links to all electronic readings. Purchasing books You may want to buy a few of the books that we ll be using extensively in class (see Core Texts, below) as well as the book you choose for the book review assignment. I have arranged that copies of these books will be available for purchase at Lighthouse Books, West Nicolson St, Edinburgh EH8 9DB, tel: , 6

7 WEEKLY COURSE SCHEDULE AND ACTIVITIES Week/date Theme Activities To do Week 1 A century of upheaval: from Introductions, Choose book to 19 January reform to revolution, and back organization of the review again course Week 2 Engineering social change Students assigned to 26 January under Mao and after groups depending on book review choice;; start preparing for group assignment Week 3 Culture, self and 2 February individualization Week 4 Class: from workers and First PG tutorials Choose a personal 9 February peasants to commodified and story from selected surplus labour books to analyse in class Week 5 16 February Making a middle class Second PG tutorials Assignment: Book review, due 12 February February NO CLASS Festival of Creative Learning Week 6 2 March Week 7 9 March The gender of social change Gender and family: two angles on a changing institution Guest lecturer: Qing Lin Feedback on book reviews Third PG tutorials Week 8 On the move: internal migration Assignment: Essay 16 March outline/abstract, due 13 March Week 9 Urbanization and Fourth PG tutorials Presenting group 23 March transformation of the city work projects Guest lecturer: Jingyu Mao Week 10 Social movements and Group feedback on Group assignment to 30 March resistance essay outlines be completed by 2 April Week 11 Last PG tutorials 3 April 19 April Assignment: Final essay due 7

8 WEEKLY CLASSES, ACTIVITIES AND READINGS Links to all readings for the course are available on the class Resource List: Core texts The books below will be drawn on extensively for the course. The Blecher and Mitter are useful background reading, especially for those who have not done any prior study of contemporary China. We will be drawing on the Chan, Madsen and Unger and the Perry books in a number of classes. The Pieke book is quite short, and addresses a number of key questions about the development of contemporary China in thought-provoking ways. Blecher, Marc China against the Tides: Restructuring through Revolution, Radicalism and Reform. Continuum International Publishing Group. (HUB reserve) Chan, Anita, Richard Madsen and Jonathan Unger Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization. University of California Press. (HUB reserve) Mitter, Rana Modern China: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (HUB reserve) Perry, Elizabeth Anyuan: Mining China s Revolutionary Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press. (e-book) Pieke, Frank N Knowing China: A Twenty-First Century Guide. Cambridge;; New York: Cambridge University Press. (e-book) Week 1: 19 January A century of upheaval: from reform to revolution, and back again China s modern history is a catalogue of tumultuous changes, yet many commentators on today s political scene reflect on continuities with the imperial past. Looking back over the past 100 years, what has changed and what remains the same? How has this change been understood by scholars, officials and ordinary people? As well as providing an introduction to the themes of the course, this class will explore the historical background to China s contemporary period, with a focus on understanding structural factors, particularly those underpinning current systems of governance and social organization. It will also sketch out some of the ways social change may be the same or different in China and elsewhere, identifying some parameters for assessing the topics to be addressed in the course. Essential reading Mitter, Rana Modern China: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Perry, Elizabeth Anyuan: Mining China s Revolutionary Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press (e-book) 8

9 Week 2: 26 January Engineering social change under Mao and after What was the rationale for the social revolution embarked on after the Communist Party took power? How were changes initiated, and what effects did they have? Some scholars now present these changes as catastrophic, while other point to a number of positive effects, and the balance sheet is still a subject of intense debate in academic circles. Despite continuity in communist rule, it is often assumed that the period of post-mao reforms starting in the late 1970s was designed to reverse many of the changes of the Mao period. This class will look at continuities and differences in ideas about and strategies for bringing about change in Chinese society over the last six decades, and consider some of the intended and unintended consequences of such approaches. It will particularly focus on these changes in relation to some of the main themes of the course: class, gender, urbanization and migration. Essential reading Gao, Mobo Is a Non-Capitalist World Possible? The China Quarterly 223 (September): Mao, Zedong Chapter VII: Transforming Man, Nature and Society. In Stuart R. Schram (ed.), The Political Thought of Mao Zedong. Prager Chan, Anita, Richard Madsen and Jonathan Unger Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization. University of California Press (You don t need to read all of this but read the introduction, Ch.1, and skim the following chapters to get a flavour of what campaigns meant in a village.) Perry, Elizabeth Anyuan: Mining China s Revolutionary Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press Week 3: 2 February Culture, self and individualization Pundits often counterpose collectivist Chinese culture against the individualist liberal norms in the West. What are the manifestations of such differences in actual social life in China today? What can we learn from a sociological approach to understanding how such differences are socially constructed? During the first 30 years of communist rule, China experienced periods of intense collective engagement in state-oriented social, economic and political projects. Since the early 1980s, the ruling Party has rejected movement politics and class struggle, yet still promotes collectivism in its education and propaganda. Yet Yunxiang Yan observes a trend towards individualization that cuts across both periods. What is the empirical evidence for this in different contexts? What distinguishes individualization from individualism? What impact does individualization have on social life and social norms? Should we characterize these processes as individualization at all? And what does this contribute to understanding broader debates on the relationship between values and culture? 9

10 Essential reading Barbalet, Jack Chinese Individualization, Revisited. Journal of Sociology 52 (1):9 23. Fei, Xiaotong Ch. 4 & 5. From the Soil, the Foundations of Chinese Society. University of California Press. (e-book) pp Stockman, Norman Ch. 4: Individual and Society in China. In Stockman, Understanding Chinese Society. Polity Press. pp Yan, Yunxiang The Chinese path to individualization. The British Journal of Sociology 61, no And choose one or more of the personal stories/profiles from the following books as a case study of the theoretical perspectives outlined above: Liao, Yiwu The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories, China from the Bottom up. Pantheon Books. This book is produced by a prominent Chinese writer and dissident. Sang, Ye China Candid: The People on the People s Republic. University of California Press. This is a book by a master of reportage journalism. Shah, Angilee, and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, eds Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land. Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press. This more recent book of profiles is by two academics who write engaging work on China. Wang, Chaohua One China, Many Paths. Verso. This book focuses on profiles of Chinese intellectuals. Suggested reading Bakken, Borge. The Exemplary Society: Human Improvement, Social Control and the Dangers of Modernity in China. Oxford University Press. Chen, Nancy et al (ed.s) China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture. Duke University Press. Dutton, Michael Streetlife China. Cambridge University Press. Farrer, James Opening up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai. University of Chicago Press. Hansen, Mette Halskov Learning Individualism: Hesse, Confucius, and Pep-Rallies in a Chinese Rural High School. The China Quarterly 213 (March): Lo, Ming-Cheng M., and Otis, Eileen M Guanxi civility: processes, potentials, and contingencies. Politics & Society 31, no. 1: Steinmüller, Hans Communities of Complicity: Notes on State Formation and Local Sociality in Rural China. American Ethnologist 37 (3): Yan, Yunxiang The Individualization of Chinese Society. Berg. Yang, Mayfair M. H The Gift Economy and State Power in China. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31, 1, 1989,

11 Week 4: 9 February Class: from workers and peasants to commodified and surplus labour As the most revolutionary class, workers were the avowed masters of socialist China, lauded in the Constitution and in propaganda. However, even after all enterprises were nationalised, tensions continued to exist between workers and managers, and strikes and other industrial action of various kinds continued throughout the Maoist period, reaching peaks at certain moments. But an elite of urban workers enjoyed complete job security and extensive welfare benefits under the work unit system. Reforms beginning in the 1980s undermined this system by deploying new flexible forms of work, and then in the 1990s, mass lay-offs decimated the ranks of China s industrial working class. How was it possible for a communist party to turn labour into a commodity? What are the consequences of this change for labour politics and conditions of work in China today? Is a new working class emerging among the migrant labourers who make up a significant proportion of the workers in China s manufacturing, construction and service sectors? Essential reading Friedman, E. and Lee, C. K Remaking the World of Chinese Labour: A 30-Year Retrospective. British Journal of Industrial Relations 48: Pringle, Tim A Class Against Capital: Class and Collective Bargaining in Guangdong. Globalizations 14 (2): Pun, Ngai Making and unmaking of the new Chinese working class. In Migrant Labor in China: Post-Socialist Transformations. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp Sun, Wanning Inequality and culture: a new pathway to understanding social inequality. In Sun, Wanning, and Guo, Yingjie (eds). Unequal China: The Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Inequality. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. (e-book) pp Suggested reading Blecher, Marc Globalization, Structural Reform, and Labour Politics in China. Global Labour Journal 1 (1): 6. Chan, Chris King-Chi and Pun Ngai The making of a new working class? A study of collective actions of migrant workers in south China. The China Quarterly, 198: Chan, Anita Racing to the bottom: international trade without a social clause. Third World Quarterly 24(6), Lee, Ching Kwan Against the Law: Labor Protests in China s Rustbelt and Sunbelt. University of California Press. Lee, Ching Kwan (ed.) Working in China: Ethnographies of Labor and Workplace Transformation. Routledge. Lee, Ching-kwan Pathways of Labor Activism. In Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (ed.s), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. 11

12 Xing, Guoxin Urban Workers Leisure Culture and the Public Sphere : A Study of the Transformation of the Workers Cultural Palace in Reform-Era China. Critical Sociology 37 (6): Week 5: 16 February Making a middle class In Maoist China, class became an ascribed status, a fixed, hereditary label that was crucially important in determining people s life chances. People were deemed to be of good class background if they belonged to revolutionary classes: workers and poor peasants. Those from bad classes rich peasants, landlords, capitalists and so on were often the targets of political campaigns. Although class struggle rhetoric was dropped after the reforms began in 1979, and Deng Xiaoping proclaimed that some can get rich first, it was not until the 1990s that the idea of belonging to a middle stratum became a socially acceptable goal, as well as a national political project. So what does middle class mean in China today? Can this middle class be expected to play the role of the bourgeoisie in Europe and lead demands for political inclusion and democratization? Essential reading Goodman, David S. G Why China has no new middle class: cadres, managers and entrepreneurs. In Goodman (ed.), The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives. Routledge (e-book) Guo, Yingjie. Class, stratum and group: the politics of description and prescription. In Goodman (ed.), The New Rich in China: Future Rulers, Present Lives. Routledge (e-book) Tang, Beibei, and Tomba, Luigi Institutionalized inequality in market socialism. In Sun, Wanning, and Guo, Yingjie (eds). Unequal China: The Political Economy and Cultural Politics of Inequality. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. (e-book) pp Tomba, Luigi Of Quality, Harmony, and Community: Civilization and the Middle Class in Urban China. positions 17 (3): Suggested reading Crabb, Mary W Governing the Middle-Class Family in Urban China: Educational Reform and Questions of Choice. Economy and Society 39 (3): doi: / Ren, Hai The Middle Class in Neoliberal China: Governing Risk, Life Building and Themed Spaces. Routledge. Zhang, Jun (Extended) Family Car, Filial Consumer-Citizens Becoming Properly Middle Class in Post-Socialist South China. Modern China. Zhang, Li In Search of Paradise: Middle-Class Living in a Chinese Metropolis. Cornell University Press February Break: Flexible Learning Week 12

13 Week 6: 2 March: The gender of social change As part of the Communist Party s programme of social revolution, it proclaimed that women hold up half the sky. A Marriage Law proclaimed free choice in marriage, and women were encouraged to participate in production as part of their Liberation. Equality between men and women was enshrined as state policy in the 1954 Constitution. Yet many forms of gender inequality continued to exist, and even communist feminists were constrained in their advocacy. In the post-mao era, some claimed that equality policies had been premature, and even called for women to return to the home to give male breadwinners priority in the allocation of state jobs. Women were disproportionately affected by the mass lay-offs in the economic restructuring of the 1990s, and in the new market economy, femininity and masculinity were deployed to promote new forms of consumption. So what has been the legacy of Maoist gender projects? What kinds of gender divisions of labour are observed? And what has been the role of agency of women and men in reshaping what gender means today? Essential reading Fincher, Leta Hong Women s rights at risk. Dissent 60, no.2: Li, Xiaojiang The Progress of Humanity and Women s Liberation. Differences 24 (2): Liu, Fengshu From degendering to (re)gendering the self: Chinese youth negotiating modern womanhood. Gender and Education 26, no.1: Liu, Lydia He;; Karl, Rebecca;; and Ko, Dorothy (eds) The birth of Chinese feminism: essential texts in transnational theory. New York: Columbia University Press. pp Suggested reading Choi, Susanne Yuk-Ping, and Yinni Peng Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family, and Gender in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Engebretsen, Elisabeth L Queer Women in Urban China: An Ethnography. Routledge. Evans, Harriet Subject of Gender: Daughters and Mothers in Urban China. Rowman and Littlefield. Fincher, Leta Hong Leftover Women: the Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. Zed Books. Hanser, Amy Service Encounters: Class, Gender, and the Market for Social Distinction in Urban China. Stanford University Press Judd, Ellen The Chinese Women s Movement Between State and Market. Stanford University Press. Otis, Eileen Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work, and the Making of Inequality in China. Stanford University Press China s Beauty Proletariat: The Body Politics of Hegemony in a Walmart Cosmetics Department. Positions 24 (1):

14 Special issue of China Quarterly on gender, agency and social change. China Quarterly 204, To, Sandy Understanding Sheng Nu ( Leftover Women ): The Phenomenon of Late Marriage among Chinese Professional Women. Symbolic Interaction 36 (1):1 20. Wang, Zheng Finding Women in the State: A Socialist Feminist Revolution in the People s Republic of China, Oakland, California: University of California Press. Wang, Zheng Gender, employment and women s resistance. In Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (ed.s), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. Routledge Wesoky, Sharon R Bringing the Jia Back into Guojia: Engendering Chinese Intellectual Politics. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 40 (3): Politics at the Local Global Intersection: Meanings of Bentuhua and Transnational Feminism in China. Asian Studies Review 40 (1): Week 7: 9 March: Gender and family: two angles of view on changing norms In this class, we ll consider how families are changing in China today and how this is affecting gender relations. Norms around family have been central in Chinese culture, and traditional conceptions of family are constantly reiterated although the practices that relate to them may be changing rapidly. We will apply a sociological lens to understanding how these reiterations may represent new wine in old bottles. To observe these processes in action we ll consider two examples. The first is the effects of internal migration on how migrant men see and experience their various family relationships. The second is the changing role of daughters in urban families against the background of rising consumer expectations and the booming housing market in China s major cities. On the latter topic, PhD candidate Lin Qing will present from her research on family formation among urban single child couples. Essential reading Choi, Susanne Yuk-Ping, and Yinni Peng Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family, and Gender in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. (e-book) pp Qi, Xiaoying Family Bond and Family Obligation: Continuity and Transformation. Journal of Sociology 52 (1): Shen, Yang Filial Daughters? Agency and Subjectivity of Rural Migrant Women in Shanghai. The China Quarterly 226 (June): Shi, L Little Quilted Vests to Warm Parents' Hearts: Redefining the Gendered Practice of Filial Piety in Rural North-eastern China. The China Quarterly, 198, Suggested reading Friedman, Sara L Women, marriage and the state. In Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (ed.s). Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. RoutledgeCurzon. (e-book) 14

15 Judd, Ellen R Family Strategies: Fluidities of Gender, Community and Mobility in Rural West China. The China Quarterly 204: 921. Holroyd, E Hong Kong Chinese daughters intergenerational caregiving obligations: A cultural model approach. Social Science & Medicine, 53(9), Wang, X., and D. Nehring Individualization as an Ambition: Mapping the Dating Landscape in Beijing. Modern China 40 (6): Yan, Yunxiang Ch. 4: Practicing kinship, remaking the individual. In Yan, The Individualization of Chinese Society. Berg Parent-Driven Divorce and Individualisation among Urban Chinese Youth. International Social Science Journal 64 ( ): Intergenerational Intimacy and Descending Familism in Rural North China. American Anthropologist, April. doi: /aman Week 8: 16 March: On the move: internal migration In the early years of the People s Republic, the state evinced a strong preference for sedentarism through instituting the hukou system. At the same time, large numbers of people were moved as part of various state projects, including resettlement for hydro-electric projects and into frontier areas such as Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. With marketization of the economy, controls on migration were gradually relaxed, and large numbers of people have moved to find employment, for education and for business. This class will consider planned and unplanned forms of internal migration in China today, as well as how the state s continuing preference for urban development shapes the environment in which people make choices about whether to move or to stay in place. Essential reading Chan, Kam Wing The household registration system and migrant labor in China: notes on a debate. Population and Development Review 36, no.2: Nyiri, Pal Internal migration. In Nyiri, Mobility and cultural authority in contemporary China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. (e- book) pp Wang, Feiling Conflict, resistance and the transformation of the hukou system. In Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (ed.s). Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. RoutledgeCurzon. (e-book) Woodman, Sophia Legitimating Exclusion and Inclusion: Culture, Education and Entitlement to Local Urban Citizenship in Tianjin and Lanzhou. Citizenship Studies 21 (7): Suggested reading Chen, Guidi Will the Boat Sink the Water? The Life of China s Peasants. Public Affairs. Fan, C. Cindy China on the Move: Migration, the State and the Household. Routledge. 15

16 Gaetano, Arianne, and Tamara Jacka (ed.s) On the Move: Women and Rural-to- Urban Migration in Contemporary China. Columbia University Press. Goodburn, Charlotte Migrant Girls in Shenzhen: Gender, Education and the Urbanization of Aspiration. The China Quarterly 222 (June): Jacka, Tamara Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration and Social Change. M. E. Sharpe. Pun, Ngai Migrant Labor in China: Post-Socialist Transformations. Cambridge: Polity Press. Xu, Feng Governing China s Peasant Migrants: Building Xiaokang Socialism and an Harmonious Society. In Elaine Jeffreys (ed.), China s Governmentalities: Governing Change, Changing Government. Routledge. Wang, Feng Boundaries of inequality: perceptions of distributive justice among urbanites, migrants and peasants. In Whyte, Martin King (ed.), One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China. Harvard University Press Whyte, Martin King (ed.) One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China. Harvard University Press. Zhang, Li Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population. Stanford University Press. Week 9: 23 March Urbanization New state projects of urbanization are also uprooting many people, as urban conglomerations are increasingly seen by the authorities as the drivers of economic growth. Municipal governments are highly dependent on revenues from sales of land use rights to developers as a source of revenue, while moving people from villages into urban style housing is seen as a manifestation of the policy of building a new socialist countryside. In this class, we ll consider how changing urban landscapes are altering social life, and what this means for different populations, including those on the peripheries of urban development. We ll also look at some of the tensions arising from urban development and redevelopment. In a case study on the new encounters created by these processes, PhD candidate Mao Jingyu will present her work on ethnic performance as a form of service work by migrant workers in southwest China. Essential reading Johnson, Ian China s great uprooting. million-into-cities.html Guo, Zhonghua, and Tuo Liang Differentiating Citizenship in Urban China: A Case Study of Dongguan City. Citizenship Studies 21 (7): Sargeson, Sally Violence as development: land expropriation and China s urbanization. The Journal of Peasant Studies 40, no.6:

17 Shao, Qin Introduction. Shanghai Gone: Domicide and Defiance in a Chinese Megacity. State and Society in East Asia. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. (e-book) pp Suggested reading Bray, David Chapter 4. Social Space and Governance in Urban China: The Danwei System from Origins to Reform. Stanford University Press. Huang, Youqin Collectivism, political control, and gating in Chinese cities. Urban Geography 27, no. 6: Kipnis, Andrew B From Village to City: Social Transformation in a Chinese County Seat. Oakland, California: University of California Press. Walder, Andrew G., Tianjue Luo, and Dan Wang Social Stratification in Transitional Economies: Property Rights and the Structure of Markets. Theory and Society 42 (6): Wu, Fulong Beyond gradualism: China s urban revolution and emerging cities. In Fulong Wu (ed.), China s Emerging Cities: the Making of the New Urbanism. Routledge. (e-book) Week 10: 30 March Social movements and resistance Political life in China today can seem a study in contradictions: dissenters can face harassment, violence and even imprisonment, while almost daily protests point to widespread popular contention. This class will outline the institutional forms and practices that create spaces for contentious claims while at the same time seeking to constrain their expression within defined bounds. It will show how such boundary-making contributes to the resilience of authoritarianism in China, not only by blocking cross-sectoral and cross-regional organizing that could present a challenge to the incumbent elite, but also by providing channels for the articulation of claims and allowing for feedback from below. We ll look at how canny citizens can make use of limited political space to pursue claims and make their voices heard. Essential reading Lee, Ching Kwan State and social protest. Daedalus 143, no. 2: Pia, Andrea E A Water Commons in China? Chinoiresie (blog). September 14, Pieke, Frank N Ch.4 Freedom without universal human rights. Knowing China: A Twenty-First Century Guide. Cambridge;; New York: Cambridge University Press. (ebook) Woodman, Sophia, and Zhonghua Guo Introduction: Practicing Citizenship in Contemporary China. Citizenship Studies 21 (7): And read one of the following, depending on the thematic focus you ve chosen for your essay: 17

18 Ding, Yu Eating the Rice Bowl of Youth: Xiaojies Everyday Self-Practices as Doing Citizenship from the Margins. Citizenship Studies 21 (7): Guo, Taihui Rights in Action: The Impact of Chinese Migrant Workers Resistances on Citizenship Rights. Journal of Chinese Political Science 19 (4): Hess, Steve Nail-Houses, Land Rights, and Frames of Injustice on China s Protest Landscape. Asian Survey 50 (5): Hurst, William Mass frames and worker protest. In O Brien, Kevin J (ed), Popular Protest in China. Harvard University Press. pp Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N Middle class mobilization. Journal of Democracy 20, no.3: Wei, W Street, Behavior, Art: Advocating Gender Rights and the Innovation of a Social Movement Repertoire. Chinese Journal of Sociology, May. doi: / x Woodman, Sophia Law, Translation and Voice: Transformation of a Struggle for Social Justice in a Chinese Village. Critical Asian Studies 43 (2): Zhu, Jiangang, and Ho, Peter Not Against the State, just Protecting Residents' Interests: An Urban Movement in a Shanghai Neighborhood. In Peter Ho and Richard L. Edmonds (ed.s), China's Embedded Activism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement. London;; New York: Routledge (e-book) Suggested reading Cai, Yongshun Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. Stanford University Press. Calhoun, Craig J Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China. University of California Press Chen, Xi Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China. Cambridge University Press. Hsing, You-tien, and Ching Kwan Lee(ed.s) Reclaiming Chinese Society: The New Social Activism. Routledge. Ho, Peter Embedded Activism and Political Change in a Semiauthoritarian Context. China Information 21 (2): Lee, Ching Kwan, and Yonghong Zhang The Power of Instability: Unraveling the Microfoundations of Bargained Authoritarianism in China. American Journal of Sociology 118 (6): O Brien, Kevin J (ed.) Popular Protest in China. Harvard University Press. O Brien, Kevin J., and Lianjiang Li Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge University Press 18

19 ASSIGNMENTS AND HOW TO DO THEM I. Book review assignment (20% of mark) For this assignment, you should write a review of the book you have chosen (see list below, note that all books are available via the Library as e-books). A book review should give the reader a sense of the book s principal content and arguments, as well as how the writer draws her/his conclusions, and provide some analysis of the book s central arguments. In addition, your review should identify a question about social change raised by this book that you would like to focus on for your essay assignment. This question should be incorporated into your review. Your book review is due no later than noon on Monday 12 February. You must submit your essay through ELMA, as outlined above. Penalties apply for late submission. Do not put your name or matriculation number on the front of the review, only your Exam Number. Please also state a precise word count. Your book review should be words, excluding bibliography. Part of the exercise is to write a concise and focused review, so assignments above 1,100 words will be penalized using the ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every 20 words over length: anything between 1,101 and 1,120 words will lose one point, between 1,121 and 1,140 two points, and so on. Note that 1000 words is a guideline, and you will not be penalized for submitting fewer words. However, shorter reviews are unlikely to present an adequate outline of the book and this will be reflected in your mark. Feedback for your book review will be returned online via ELMA by Monday, 5 March. Books for review assignment (choose one) Theme: Class Friedman, Eli Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Rocca, Jean-Louis The Making of the Chinese Middle Class: Small Comfort and Great Expectations. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Swider, Sarah Building China: Informal Work and the New Precariat. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Theme: Gender Engebretsen, Elisabeth L Queer Women in Urban China: An Ethnography. Routledge. Fincher, Leta Hong Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China. London: Zed Books. Otis, Eileen Markets and Bodies: Women, Service Work, and the Making of Inequality in China. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Theme: Internal migration Choi, Susanne Yuk-Ping, and Yinni Peng Masculine Compromise: Migration, Family, and Gender in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Gaetano, Arianne M Out to Work: Migration, Gender, and the Changing Lives of Rural Women in Contemporary China. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press. 19

20 Pun, Ngai Migrant Labor in China: Post-Socialist Transformations. Cambridge: Polity Press. Theme: Urbanization Kipnis, Andrew B From Village to City: Social Transformation in a Chinese County Seat. Oakland, California: University of California Press. Shao, Qin Shanghai Gone: Domicide and Defiance in a Chinese Megacity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Tomba, Luigi The Government Next Door: Neighborhood Politics in Urban China. Cornell University Press. II. Essay outline or abstract (15% of mark) For this assignment, you should write a detailed outline or an abstract of your planned essay (for more on the essay, see below). You should include the central question about social change that your essay will address, and identify the key literature (including some nonacademic sources, see below) you will draw on to answer this question. The outline can be in the form of bullet points, but could include short summaries of sections of your essay. The abstract should be a summary of the main points you want to make in not more than 750 words. In addition, you should indicate three areas on which you d most like feedback. Your outline is due no later than noon on Monday 12 March. You must submit your outline through ELMA. Penalties apply for late submission. Do not put your name or matriculation number on the front of the outline, only your Exam Number. Outlines submitted on time will be returned to you through ELMA by 2 April. III. Final essay (50% of mark, includes 5% for incorporating feedback exercise) Your final essay should address a question about social change in contemporary China you have identified based on your book review and supplementary reading. The essay should draw on relevant academic literature, but also identify emerging issues around current practice and events based on non-academic sources, such as news articles, NGO press releases and reports, government documents and reports and studies by international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank etc. Alternatively, your essay could draw on documentary films, including, but not limited to, those watched in class for this nonacademic material. The essay should be 4,000 to 4,500 words, exclusive of bibliography. A good essay is likely to be close to the upper word limit. Please include a precise word count with your essay. The penalty for excessive word length in coursework is one mark deducted for each additional 20 words over the limit. The limit is 4,500 words, so anything between 4,501 and 4,520 words will lose one point, and so on. In addition, you should indicate how you have incorporated the feedback you received on your outline. Attach this feedback to your final essay, and on a separate page, explain how you incorporated the feedback in writing your final essay. This will not be included in the word count for your final essay, but is worth 5% of the 50% mark for the final essay. Your essay is due no later than noon on 19 April You must submit your essay through ELMA. Penalties apply for late submission, as outlined above. Do not put your name or matriculation number on the front of the essay, only your Exam Number. 20

21 Feedback for essays will be returned online via ELMA by TBC. IV. Group work (15% of mark) Based on your choice of book to review, you will be assigned to a group covering one of the broad themes of the course (gender, class, internal migration and urbanization). Your group will agree on a common sub-theme to research that relates to the topics on which you are planning to write your final essays for the course. The group will be responsible for preparing a set of annotated readings and resources (webpages, videos, images etc.) in the form of a webfolio on Pebble+ (a virtual learning environment supported by the University analogous to Learn, but with more features that can support this assignment), and producing a group blog post ( words) that summarizes some of the central themes and questions for researchers that arise from your collective research. The idea is that this should be collective background research that will support the individual work you are doing for your essays. As well as drawing on scholarly sources, the collected materials should include relevant blogs, news reports, videos etc. A list of online resources to draw from is included in the course Resource List. Some of the initial work of the group will begin in class, but you will mainly be responsible for doing this in your own time. On 23 March, we ll have a brief report-back to discuss your findings. The final group project should be completed for marking by 2 April. Group work projects will be assessed according to the following criteria: 1. Breadth of the background research as demonstrated in the materials collected in the webfolio;; 2. How much the annotations bring out the contributions and notable features of the materials collected;; 3. The identification of key questions that could guide researchers in exploring the subtheme identified by the group;; and 4. How effectively items 2 and 3 are summarized in the blog post as a possible guide to other researchers. Feedback for the group work will be sent out to each group via by 23 April. Planning and writing your assignments Here are some useful points to bear in mind: 1. Start in good time for the book review, you will need to read the book first, and you will need to identify a question relevant to the themes of the book that you want to explore in your essay. However, this need not be your final question: as you do research for your essay, you should refine and develop your question. 2. Make sure that you have identified a researchable question for your essay and have defined any key terms. Draft some provisional headings relating to key points/aspects of the question. These will be useful in structuring your essay outline or abstract. 3. Identify relevant sources, starting from course readings. At PG level, you need to go well beyond the course reading list. Strategies for doing this include following up references in the bibliographies of articles and books you have found particularly useful. You can also find articles that cite the book/article that originally generated the question you ve identified. 21

22 4. Make notes and organise the readings in accordance with your plan headings, revising your provisional headings in the light of your review of readings. By now, you should be formulating an argued response to the question, and organising your material in a way that will support your argument. 5. Don t wait to write until the last minute. Draft sections of your essay as they come to you, and then see how they fit together. You don t need to start at the beginning, but at some point you need to come up with a good introductory paragraph. This should identify the main question to be addressed and indicate how you will approach answering it. It is a good idea to provide a road map to your essay at the beginning. 6. Be sure to use a recognised system of referencing and citation and be careful to cite all sources clearly. Distinguish between academic sources and other less authoritative sources such as articles, blogs, campaign websites etc. 7. Throughout the writing stage, be prepared to edit down. Always keep the needs of the question uppermost in your mind and ask yourself what work each section is doing in helping you to answer it. Think of your essay as an argument, progressing by stages, clearly linked, and supported by well-chosen evidence. 8. Your essay needs to have a well-argued conclusion. Avoid introducing new ideas or arguments right at the end of the essay, or taking off a new direction. Your final paragraphs should draw together the main threads of the argument that you have been developing throughout the essay. 9. Always read through your draft essay carefully and redraft as necessary. Make sure to use grammar check and spell check. Rewrite long and awkward sentences that might be misunderstood. Reading your essay aloud will help you to identify any troublesome sentences. Ask a friend to read your draft and give you some feedback. Ideally, finish drafting your essay a few days ahead of the deadline so that you can leave it for a day or so before your final revisions. You will almost certainly find that things that seemed clear to you at the time of writing need to be re-worded. 22