Category Archives: Publications

New Publication: “Maybe listening to the elite? Selective deliberation as a governance tool in rural China”

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René Trappel, Zhao Tiantian (main author), and Han Guoming have published an article in Asia Pacific Viewpoint on the intersection of rural governance, the so-called “deliberative democracy” and the village elite. It is based on extensive fieldwork by Dr. Zhao. Prof. Han (now retired) and Dr. Zhao, both from the Management School of Lanzhou University, Gansu Province, have been research partners throughout the duration of the DFG project “Steering Urban-Rural Integration: Administrative Reconfiguration for a Unified Citizenship”.

Please find the article at Maybe listening to the elite? Selective deliberation as a governance tool in rural China (online first).

New Event: Seminar on Agrarian Futures in China on October 29, 2021

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Organized by the China and global Development Network, Department of Applied Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China, this seminar brings together thee presentations on the topic of agrarian futures in China. The presenters are drawn from the participants of a recent topical issue of China Perspectives on agrarian futures, co-edited by Karita Kan and René Trappel. René is also one of the presenters.

New publication: The Political Opportunity Structure of Chinese Villages: A Case Study of Rightful Resistance in Northwest China

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Together with Dr. Guo Pengpeng and Prof. Dr. Han Guoming, both long-term cooperation partners at the School of Management, Lanzhou University in Gansu Province, René Trappel published an article in the latest issue of Asian Perspective (45, 3, Summer 2021) on political opportunity structures and “rightful resistance” in rural China. 

For more information see https://muse.jhu.edu/article/800603.

New publication: “Negotiating Agrarian Futures in China”

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The special feature “Negotiating Agrarian Futures in China” under the guest editorship of Karita Kan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and René Trappel, University of Freiburg, has been published in the latest issue of China Perspectives (2021/2). The feature also includes an article by René Trappel on state-led agrarian change in Gansu Province (“From Peasant to Elite: Reshaping Agriculture in Gansu Province”), which is provided in open access. 

New publication: Global city competition and new hierarchies of urban citizenship in China’s migration regime

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Elena Meyer-Clement and Xiang Wang published a new chapter titled “Global city competition and new hierarchies of urban citizenship in China’s migration regime” in the book Immigration Governance in East Asia: Norm Diffusion, Politics of Identity, Citizenship. The book is edited by Gunter Schubert, Franziska Plümmer and Anastasiya Bayok. It analyzes immigration policies in contemporary East Asia and it is included in the Routledge Series on Asian Migration.

The chapter discusses China’s evolving approach to governing migration in its cities under the conditions of national and global city competition. It investigates how China’s central and local governments steer who becomes an urban citizen and whether there are signs of an integrated approach of governing immigration and internal migration. The analysis shows that on the national level, there is high alignment among recent immigration policies with the rationales of internal migration policies. There is a two-pronged approach in both policy areas: attracting skilled and educated foreigners and migrants on the one hand, and strengthening the governance of unwanted individuals on the other. The chapter presents two cases studies of Shanghai and Yiwu. The analysis shows that the existing hierarchical order of exclusion and inclusion in China’s local citizenship regimes has been reinforced by the diffusion of global norms of urban restructuring and city competition. Meanwhile, the differences between the two cases reveal that China’s central–local relations and the administrative rank of Chinese cities are important factors for understanding how global norms of capital restructuring and city rescaling affect China’s urban migration regimes.

New special issue on China’s rural urbanization

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A new special issue, co-edited by Elena Meyer-Clement and Jesper Willaing Zeuthen, with contributions from the first workshop of the “Modernizing Rural China” network has been published in China Information, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2020.

Meyer-Clement, E., & Zeuthen, J. W. (2020). China’s rural urbanization and the state: Putting the countryside first? China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X20923240

Yep, R. (2019). Local alliances in rural urbanization: Land transfer in contemporary China. China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X19865978

Meyer-Clement, E. (2019). Rural urbanization under Xi Jinping: From rapid community building to steady urbanization? China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X19875931

Zeuthen, J. W. (2020). Rescaling China’s rural–urban frontier: Exception as norm in the access to development. China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X20920817

Wilczak, J. (2020). Leveraging land values for rural development in China after the Sichuan earthquake. China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X20928903

Wang, D., & Christiansen, F. (2019). The pursuit of new citizenship by peri-urban residents in China: Status, rights, and individual choice. China Information. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X19835455

Pils, E. (2020). From authoritarian development to totalist urban reordering: The Daxing forced evictions case. China Information, 34(2), 270–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X20929590

New publication: Permits, Points, and Permanent Household Registration: Recalibrating Hukou Policy under “Top-Level Design

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Xiang Wang has published a new article with SAGE Publishing and Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, titled “Permits, Points, and Permanent Household Registration: Recalibrating Hukou Policy under “Top-Level Design””.

China’s New-type Urbanisation Plan heralded a new phase of reform of the household registration (hukou) system and initiated a nation-wide reconfiguration of hukou policy in Chinese cities. This study reveals that the former localisation of hukou policymaking has been brought to greater uniformity under the current central guidelines. The liberalisation of hukou conversion has been expanded to many large cities that previously employed selective migrant integration policies. Mega-cities have recalibrated the selection criteria for new citizens, elevating the importance of settlement duration and moderating the importance of educational and professional qualifications. Case studies in Guangdong further reveal the dynamic interactions among different levels of government in the course of reform. Local policy experimentations set important precedents for central policymaking, and the central guidelines are enforcing new adjustments in local implementation. The provincial government plays a prominent role in coordinating top-down directives and local conditions.

The OnlineFirst version of the full article is available here.

New publication: “Rural urbanization under Xi Jinping: From rapid community building to steady urbanization?”

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Elena Meyer-Clement published a new article in China Information “Rural Urbanization under Xi Jinping: From rapid community building to steady urbanization?”

The article studies the implementation and evolution of the policy of “rural community building” as a case of policy learning. It analyses national and local policy documents and implementation practices in four provinces. The analysis highlights a new framing of the policy, more intensive hierarchical controls over rural land use, and the state’s increasing reach into village governance, as well as new incentives for local governments to continue with demolition and relocation projects. These changes reveal a mode of policy learning in the context of an authoritarian regime whose goal is to improve policy implementation in the face of growing public criticism and social tension.