Organizing Rural China - Rural China Organizing

During the early 1980s China embarked on what can be seen as one of the world's largest social experiments ever. Decollectivization meant much more than the reorganization of agricultural production into family based farming. It signalled significant changes to rural social relations, when privatization, marketization and increased geographical mobility started tearing apart the economic and social institutions that had structured collective village life under Mao.The focus of this book is on how rural society has been reorganized in the 21st century. The first chapters outline the basic organizational structure of rural China and can be used as an introduction to the topic in a classroom setting. They show how the state and its social scientists draw up plans to overcome the perceived lack of rural social organization, and discuss the often problem-ridden implementation of their ideas. The second section presents case studies of institutions that organize key aspects of rural life: Boarding schools where rural children learn to accept organizational hierarchies; lineage organizations carving out new roles for themselves; "dragonhead enterprises" expected to organize agricultural production and support rural development, and several others. The book is of theoretical interest because of its focus on the re-embedding, or reintegration, of individuals into new types of collectivities, which are less predetermined by tradition and habit and more a matter of, at least perceived, individual choice. Most chapters are based on extensive fieldwork and contain vivid examples from daily life, which will make the book attractive to anyone who wants to understand how Chinese villagers experience the extraordinary social changes they are going through.

IntroductionIntroduction, by Ane Bislev and Stig ThøgersenImagining Rural China: Policies, Discourses, IdealsContinuity and Change in Rural China's Organization, by Jonathan UngerOrganizing Rural China: Political and Academic Discourses, by Stig ThøgersenGovernment Propaganda and the Organization of Rural China, by Christian GöbelStitching it All Back Up: The Role of Sent-Down Cadres in Rural Community Building?, by Unn Målfrid RolandsenReconstructing Rural China from the Bottom: A Discussion of Some Recent Chinese Experiments, by Xu Yong and Ma HuaGoverning China's Failed Villages: Between a "Weak State" and a Fragmented Society, by Liu YiqiangOrganizing Rural China: Actors and Local PracticesLife in a Rural Boarding School: Learning to Organize and to Be Organized, by Mette Halskov HansenOrganizing Rural Health Care, by Mikkel BunkenborgLineages and the State: Re-inventing Lineages and Ancestor Ceremonies as Cultural Heritage, by Marina SvenssonNative Place in Cyberspace: The Civic Enagement of an Internet Community, by Pang CuimingEmbedded Microcredit-Creating Village Cohesion on the Basis of Existing Social Networks, by Ane BislevA Value Chain Gone Awry: Implications of the "Tainted Milk Scandal" in 2008 for Political and Social Organization in Rural China, by Jørgen Delman and Yang MinghongReflectionsModern/Rural China: State Institutions and Village Values, by Vivienne Shue