Polarized Cities
Portraits of Rich and Poor in Urban China
1st Edition
Published on 14. September 2018
1 pages
979-8-216-24288-8 (ISBN)
Description
This powerful book presents a fresh and compelling set of portraits that bring to life the human dimension of the vast and growing social and economic divides in urban China. Leading scholars explore the increasing rigidity of class and social boundaries, focusing on two new "castes" in contemporary China's cities-the immensely wealthy and the abjectly poor. Much has been made of the rise in incomes, the elimination of much rural poverty, and the expansion of an urban middle class over almost forty years of spectacular economic growth. But what often has been overlooked is the polarization, exclusion, and exclusiveness in cities that have accompanied this rise, along with the threat that these trends will extend to future generations. The book considers five cases that emblematize these castes and depict their varying degrees of agency. Highlighting the social groups at opposite ends of the social hierarchy, the contributors illuminate the growing inequality in urban China today.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2018
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
€56.90
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Dorothy J. Solinger is professor emerita of political science at the University of California, Irvine.
Content
Introduction: State Policies, Castes, and Agency
Dorothy J. Solinger
Part I: Polarization: Scope, Causes, Manifestations
1 China's Uphill Battle Against Inequality
Wang Feng
2 Convergence and Divergence Among the Rich and the Poor
Li Zhang
Part II: Portraits of the Urban Poor
3 Banish the Impoverished Past: The Predicament of the Abandoned Urban Poor
Dorothy J. Solinger
4 The Passionate Poor: Foxconn Workers Invited as Volunteers
Mun Young Cho
5 On the Rough Edge of Prosperity: Informal Migrant Recyclers in Beijing
Joshua Goldstein
Part III: The Upper Reaches of the Urban Rich
6 China's Party Kings: Shanghai Club Cultures and Status Consumption, 1920s-2010s
Andrew David Field and James Farrer
7 Corruption, Anti-Corruption, and the Dynamics of Class: Formation in Post-Mao China
John Osburg
Urban Polarities: Inequality, Social Mobility, and the Role of the State
David S. G. Goodman
About the Contributors
Dorothy J. Solinger
Part I: Polarization: Scope, Causes, Manifestations
1 China's Uphill Battle Against Inequality
Wang Feng
2 Convergence and Divergence Among the Rich and the Poor
Li Zhang
Part II: Portraits of the Urban Poor
3 Banish the Impoverished Past: The Predicament of the Abandoned Urban Poor
Dorothy J. Solinger
4 The Passionate Poor: Foxconn Workers Invited as Volunteers
Mun Young Cho
5 On the Rough Edge of Prosperity: Informal Migrant Recyclers in Beijing
Joshua Goldstein
Part III: The Upper Reaches of the Urban Rich
6 China's Party Kings: Shanghai Club Cultures and Status Consumption, 1920s-2010s
Andrew David Field and James Farrer
7 Corruption, Anti-Corruption, and the Dynamics of Class: Formation in Post-Mao China
John Osburg
Urban Polarities: Inequality, Social Mobility, and the Role of the State
David S. G. Goodman
About the Contributors
