Date and Time
February 28, 2006
11:45 AM - 1:30 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Xueguang Zhou - Professor of Sociology at Duke University

In the past two years, Professor Xueguang Zhou conducted ethnographic research through participatory observations in villages and the township government and in-depth interviews/daily interactions with cadres and villagers. His presentation focuses on the episode of implementing state-sponsored Reforestation Project in the villages and related events to illustrate interactions between villages and the township government, corporatist bases in resource mobilization, and shifting group boundaries and identities.

His research shows that, in rural areas of northern China today, corporatist institutions are still a major organizing basis for resource redistribution and mobilization. In recent years, however, major changes have been underway that put the corporatist institutions under severe strain. As a result, these institutions are becoming fragile, truncated, and marginalized, with great variations among villages and townships. These observations lead him to argue that rural China today is at the crossroads of profound institutional changes, with significant implications for the role of local governments, patterns of social inequality, and collective action.