On the social and political effects of opening in rural China

• Main Authors: CHENG, Housi, ZHANG, Qian Forrest, John A. DONALDSON
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: China; rural development; marketization; Agribusiness; Asian Studies; Political Science; Rural Sociology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1909; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3166/viewcontent/CCPS1_3__Cheng_Zhang_Donaldson.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

What are the economic, social and political effects when previously isolated villages are opened to the outside world? Scholars from different traditions expect different sorts of positive or negative affects to occur. Rural China presents an ideal environment to study this question empirically. Villages within rural China are in the process of being opened to the outside world in different forms, such as through being connected by road, the investment of agribusiness, or urbanization. Moreover this opening is being driven and shaped by different actors, including local residents, government and businesses. The different ways and actors that this opening occurs affect the nature of the opening, as well as its impact on the economic, social and political characteristics of the village.