Generating Opportunity: A Vacancy-Chain Approach to Organizational Mobility in the Chinese Bureaucracy

Speaker: Yuze Sui, PhD candidate in Sociology, Stanford University

How do organizations generate mobility opportunities, and how do those opportunities travel through internal labor markets? This paper develops a vacancy-chain approach to organizational mobility that shifts attention from isolated transitions to linked episodes of opportunity generation, allocation, and stabilization. I apply this approach to three decades of personnel movements in the Jiangsu provincial bureaucracy, reconstructing complete vacancy chains among leadership positions from 1992 to 2017. The analysis reveals three findings. First, mobility opportunities are not simply produced by incumbent exit; they are frequently manufactured through temporary slot expansion, especially in flexible deputy positions. Second, the organizational sites most central to opportunity generation are not necessarily those with the greatest formal authority. Ceremonial bodies such as the People’s Congress and CPPCC disproportionately initiate vacancy chains, generate longer cascades, and promote cross-functional circulation within jurisdictions. Third, boundary-spanning mobility is stabilized not through fixed office-to-office pipelines but through a hub-and-spoke architecture in which recurring connector offices link otherwise segmented domains. These findings recast opportunity structure as an endogenous organizational product: opportunities must be generated before they can be allocated, and their downstream paths depend on where they originate. More broadly, the paper shows how organizations sustain mobility while balancing segmentation, coordination, and control.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present.