Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China
A new understanding of rural-urban migration and inequality in contemporary China

Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences are far more nuanced than popular narratives might suggest. Rural Origins, City Lives probes long-held assumptions about migrant workers in China. Drawing on fieldwork in Nanjing, Roberta Zavoretti argues that many rural-born urban-dwellers are—contrary to state policy and media portrayals—diverse in their employment, lifestyle, and aspirations. Working and living in the cities, such workers change China’s urban landscape, becoming part of an increasingly diversified and stratified society. Zavoretti finds that—more than thirty years after the Open Door Reform—class formation, not residence status, is key to understanding inequality in contemporary China.

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Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China
A new understanding of rural-urban migration and inequality in contemporary China

Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences are far more nuanced than popular narratives might suggest. Rural Origins, City Lives probes long-held assumptions about migrant workers in China. Drawing on fieldwork in Nanjing, Roberta Zavoretti argues that many rural-born urban-dwellers are—contrary to state policy and media portrayals—diverse in their employment, lifestyle, and aspirations. Working and living in the cities, such workers change China’s urban landscape, becoming part of an increasingly diversified and stratified society. Zavoretti finds that—more than thirty years after the Open Door Reform—class formation, not residence status, is key to understanding inequality in contemporary China.

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Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China

Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China

by Roberta Zavoretti
Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China

Rural Origins, City Lives: Class and Place in Contemporary China

by Roberta Zavoretti

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Overview

A new understanding of rural-urban migration and inequality in contemporary China

Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences are far more nuanced than popular narratives might suggest. Rural Origins, City Lives probes long-held assumptions about migrant workers in China. Drawing on fieldwork in Nanjing, Roberta Zavoretti argues that many rural-born urban-dwellers are—contrary to state policy and media portrayals—diverse in their employment, lifestyle, and aspirations. Working and living in the cities, such workers change China’s urban landscape, becoming part of an increasingly diversified and stratified society. Zavoretti finds that—more than thirty years after the Open Door Reform—class formation, not residence status, is key to understanding inequality in contemporary China.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295748085
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 08/01/2020
Pages: 224
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Roberta Zavoretti is a lecturer of social and cultural anthropology at the University of Cologne.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Paradigm of Rural to Urban

Migration in Contemporary China

1. Who Is a “Peasant Worker”?

2. Speaking of Oneself

3. A Place of Encounters

4. Earning, Spending, Consuming

5. Negotiating Success

Conclusion: Making Place, Making Class

What People are Saying About This

Andrew Kipnis

"A very good ethnography of migrant workers in Nanjing. It shows us the lives of several different types of workers and contrasts the lived experience of interacting with these workers to the stereotypes about them."

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