Creating market socialism : how ordinary people are shaping class and status in China

Select an Action

Title:

Author:

Hsu, Carolyn L., 1969-

ISBN:

9780822340362

9780822340171

Personal Author:

Hsu, Carolyn L., 1969-

Publication Information:

Durham, [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 2007.

Physical Description:

x, 225 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Series:

Politics, history, and culture

Contents:

How narratives shape institutional change -- Narratives and the socialist stratification system -- Harbin : from Paris of the East to the rust belt -- The path of power : revising the meaning of political capital -- Constructing entrepreneurship : the moral meaning of money -- Trust in knowledge : human capital and the emerging Suzhi hierarchy -- The narrative construction of class and status under market socialism : the emerging Suzhi hierarchy -- Appendix 1. Fieldwork sites, interview sample and questions -- Appendix 2. Glossary of Chinese terms.

Subject Term:

Social change -- China -- 21st century.

Geographic Term:

China -- Social conditions -- 2000-

China -- Economic policy -- 2000-

Electronic Access:

Table of contents only http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0711/2007006305.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025463544	306.3 H873C 2007	1	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In the midst of China's post-Mao market reforms, the old status hierarchy is collapsing. Who will determine what will take its place? In Creating Market Socialism , the sociologist Carolyn L. Hsu demonstrates the central role of ordinary people--rather than state or market elites--in creating new institutions for determining status in China. Hsu explores the emerging hierarchy, which is based on the concept of suzhi , or quality. In suzhi ideology, human capital and educational credentials are the most important measures of status and class position. Hsu reveals how, through their words and actions, ordinary citizens decide what jobs or roles within society mark individuals with suzhi, designating them "quality people."

Hsu's ethnographic research, conducted in the city of Harbin in northwestern China, included participant observation at twenty workplaces and interviews with working adults from a range of professions. By analyzing the shared stories about status and class, jobs and careers, and aspirations and hopes that circulate among Harbiners from all walks of life, Hsu reveals the logic underlying the emerging stratification system. In the post-socialist era, Harbiners must confront a fast-changing and bewildering institutional landscape. Their collective narratives serve to create meaning and order in the midst of this confusion. Harbiners collectively agree that "intellectuals" (scientists, educators, and professionals) are the most respected within the new social order, because they contribute the most to Chinese society, whether that contribution is understood in terms of traditional morality, socialist service, or technological and economic progress. Harbiners understand human capital as an accurate measure of a person's status. Their collective narratives about suzhi shape their career choices, judgments, and child-rearing practices, and therefore the new practices and institutions developing in post-socialist China.