Product Description
Post-Mao market reforms in China have led to a massive migration of rural peasants toward the cities. Officially denied residency in the cities, the over 80 million members of this “floating population” provide labor for the economic boom in urban areas but are largely denied government benefits that city residents receive. In an incisive and original study that goes against the grain of much of the current discussion on citizenship, Dorothy J. Solinger challenges the notion that markets necessarily promote rights and legal equality in any direct or linear fashion.
“An outstanding work. Solinger’s comprehensive treatment is likely to gain immediate attention from political scientists, sociologists, economics, and anthropologists working on China–as well as from students of migration and informal labor markets in other societies.” –Elizabeth Perry, author of Shanghai on Strike
“In this extraordinary book, Solinger documents that the coming of markets cannot easily convert outsiders into citizens. Years of fieldwork in several of China’s cities have produced an enormously rich and detailed account.” –Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and Its Discontents
Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market
Dorothy Solinger’s book is more than just an intelligent and well researched document about peasant migration in China today – she also offers a sympathetic and personal angle to the subject through accounts of her many personal interviews with the migrants themselves, as well as excerpts from primary sources. A thoroughly challenging read that is a must for anyone interested in the relationship between China’s floating population, the state and society.
Rating: 5 / 5
The floating population in China is a relatively new phenomenon, and this book contributes much to the literature, which has previously been most accessible in academic journals. The only thing holding me back from giving it 5 stars is its publication date…one year before the census in China. Updated statistics would be much appreciated, and are now available to Chinese scholars.
Rating: 4 / 5