Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:34:12.982Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lineage Solidarity and Rhetorical Resonance: Village Strategies to Retain Primary Schools in Rural China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2021

Felicia F. Tian Open the ORCID record for Felicia F. Tian [Opens in a new window] ,
Jing Song  and
Shichao Du
Felicia F. Tian*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Jing Song
Affiliation:
Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. Email: jingsong@cuhk.edu.hk.
Shichao Du
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Albany, New York, USA. Email: sdu@albany.edu.
*
Email: ftian@fudan.edu.cn (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As the state has shifted its priorities towards social harmony and poverty alleviation, this study finds rhetorical resonance, combined with strong lineage solidarity, as an emerging strategy for villages to compete for government resources and investments. By articulating grassroots needs as being in line with local cadres’ performance goals, villages have successfully converted their needs into development proposals and mobilized lineage solidarity to persuade local cadres of the feasibility of such proposals. Drawing on three villages’ school-saving efforts in Fujian province, our fieldwork illustrates how one village retained its school by mobilizing lineage solidarity and converting education into a “model” village project to boost cultural tourism. Others failed to do so and lost their schools. Under the target-based cadre management system, the bottom-up competition for government support is largely shaped by the villages’ pre-existing development and resource structures, which may maximize management efficiency but may also reinforce socioeconomic inequalities between villages.

摘要

摘要

随着中国政府对社会和谐和扶贫工作的日益重视，本研究发现，宗族团结如果能够与当下的政策话语相结合（话语共鸣），能够帮助村庄得到更多的政府资源和支持。一些村庄通过发掘基层需求与当地干部绩效目标的一致性，将村民的利益需求转化为符合上级政府意图的发展项目和策略，并依靠宗族的动员能力来向当地干部证明这些项目的可行性。本研究比较了福建省三个村庄在撤点并校政策下的不同保校策略：其中一个村庄依靠宗族的动员能力将教育转化为当地以文化旅游促发展的 “模范村”项目的一部分，村小得以保存并发展；而在另外两个村，保校策略未能与脱贫和发展导向的政策话语接轨，在学童流失的情况下难以证明自己的资源优势，村小被撤或降级。在绩效导向的干部管理体制下，村庄已有的发展水平和资源结构极大地影响了它们能否得到政府的支持，这可能会提高政府的管理效率，但也可能加剧村庄之间的社会经济不平等。

Keywords

lineage solidarityrhetorical resonanceschool consolidationrural Chinapoverty alleviation宗族团结话语共鸣撤点并校中国农村扶贫
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 249 , March 2022 , pp. 239 - 258
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

21st Century Education Research Center. 2013. Nongcun jiaoyu xiang hechu qu? Dui nongcun chedianbingxiao zhengce de pingjia yu fansi (Whither Rural Education? An Evaluation and Reflection of School-merger Policy in Rural China). Beijing: Beijing gongye daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Ahlers, Anna L., and Schubert, Gunter. 2013. “Strategic modelling: ‘building a new socialist countryside’ in three Chinese counties.” The China Quarterly 216, 831–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahlers, Anna L., and Schubert, Gunter. 2015. “Effective policy implementation in China's local state.” Modern China 41(4), 372–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burstein, Paul, and Linton, April. 2002. “The impact of political parties, interest groups, and social movement organizations on public policy: some recent evidence and theoretical concerns.” Social Forces 81(2), 380–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2004. “Irresponsible state: local cadres and image-building in China.” Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 20(4), 20–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Local governments and the suppression of popular resistance.” The China Quarterly 193, 24–42.Google Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2010. Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Xi, and Liu, Jingping. 2020. “Village leaders, dual brokerage and political order in rural China.” The China Quarterly. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741020000752.Google Scholar
Chuang, Julia. 2014. “China's rural land politics: bureaucratic absorption and the muting of rightful resistance.” The China Quarterly 219, 649–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dai, Jingyun, and Spires, Anthony J.. 2018. “Advocacy in an authoritarian state: how grassroots environmental NGOs influence local governments in China.” The China Journal 79, 62–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deng, Yanhua. 2017. “‘Autonomous redevelopment’: moving the masses to remove nail households.” Modern China 43(5), 494–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, Bruce J., Landry, Pierre F., Shen, Mingming and Yan, Jie. 2016. “Public goods and regime support in urban China.” The China Quarterly 228, 859–880.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Du, Yuhong, and Sun, Zhijun. 2016. Research on Compulsory Education Financing in China. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edin, Maria. 2003. “State capacity and local agent control in China: CCP cadre management from a township perspective.” The China Quarterly 173, 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, Erkang, and Yan, Aimin. 2012. Zongzu jianshi (A Brief History of Patriarchal Clans in China). Beijing: shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Freedman, Maurice. 1966. Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwantung. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Gao, Jie. 2015. “Pernicious manipulation of performance measures in China's cadre evaluation system.” The China Quarterly 223, 618–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gåsemyr, Hans Jørgen. 2016. “Networks and campaigns but not movements: collective action in the disciplining Chinese state.” Journal of Civil Society 12(4), 394–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göbel, Christian. 2011a. “Uneven policy implementation in rural China.” The China Journal 65, 53–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Göbel, Christian. 2011b. “Paving the road to a socialist new countryside: China's rural tax and fee reform.” In Alpermann, Björn (ed.), Politics and Markets in Rural China. New York: Routledge, 155–171.Google Scholar
Heilmann, Sebastian. 2008. “From local experiments to national policy: the origins of China's distinctive policy process.” The China Journal 59, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, Anning. 2016. “Ancestor worship in contemporary China: an empirical investigation.” The China Review 16(1), 169–186.Google Scholar
Hurst, William, and O'Brien, Kevin J.. 2002. “China's contentious pensioners.” The China Quarterly 170, 345–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landry, Pierre F. 2008. Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan, and Zhang, Yonghong. 2013. “The power of instability: unraveling the microfoundations of bargained authoritarianism in China.” American Journal of Sociology 118(6), 1475–1508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Lianjiang. 2010. “Rights consciousness and rules consciousness in contemporary China.” The China Journal 64, 47–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lian, Hongping, Glendinning, Anthony and Yin, Bo. 2016. “The issue of ‘land-lost’ farmers in the People's Republic of China: reasons for discontent, actions and claims to legitimacy.” Journal of Contemporary China 25, 718–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Looney, Kristen E. 2015. “China's campaign to build a new socialist countryside: village modernization, peasant councils, and the Ganzhou model of rural development.” The China Quarterly 224, 909–932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, Yao, and Tao, Ran. 2017. “Organizational structure and collective action: lineage networks, semiautonomous civic associations, and collective resistance in rural China.” American Journal of Sociology 122(6), 1726–74.Google Scholar
Lu, Yao, Zheng, Wenjuan and Wang, Wei. 2017. “Migration and popular resistance in rural China: Wukan and beyond.” The China Quarterly 229, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, Qiangqiang, Andreas, Joel and Li, Yao. 2017. “Grapes of wrath: twisting arms to get villagers to cooperate with agribusiness in China.” The China Journal 77, 27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1985. “The cadre management system, post-Mao: the appointment, promotion, transfer and removal of Party and state leaders.” The China Quarterly 102, 203–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 1999. “Selective policy implementation in rural China.” Comparative Politics 31(2), 167–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J., and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paik, Wooyeal, and Lee, Kihyun. 2012. “I want to be expropriated! The politics of xiaochanquanfang land development in suburban China.” Journal of Contemporary China 21(74), 261–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, Yusheng. 2004. “Kinship networks and entrepreneurs in China's transitional economy.” American Journal of Sociology 109(5), 1045–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, Yusheng. 2010. “When formal laws and informal norms collide: lineage networks versus birth control policy in China.” American Journal of Sociology 116(3), 770–805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perry, Elizabeth J. 2011. “From mass campaigns to managed campaigns: ‘constructing a new socialist countryside’.” In Heilman, Sebastian and Perry, Elizabeth J. (eds.), Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 30–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schubert, Gunter, and Ahlers, Anna L.. 2012. “County and township cadres as a strategic group: ‘building a new socialist countryside’ in three provinces.” The China Journal 67, 67–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shih, Victor, Adolph, Christopher and Liu, Mingxing. 2012. “Getting ahead in the Communist Party: explaining the advancement of Central Committee members in China.” American Political Science Review 106(1), 166–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Graeme. 2009. “Political machinations in a rural county.” The China Journal 62, 29–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Graeme. 2010. “The hollow state: rural governance in China.” The China Quarterly 203, 601–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, David A., and Benford, Robert D.. 1988. “Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization.” International Social Movement Research 1, 197–217.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., Rochford, E. Burke Jr., Worden, Steven K. and Benford, Robert D.. 1986. “Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation.” American Sociological Review 51(4), 464–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Jing. 2014. “Space to maneuver: collective strategies of indigenous villagers in the urbanizing region of northwestern China.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 55(4), 362–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Jing. 2015. “Official relocation and self-help development: three housing strategies under ambiguous property rights in China's rural land development.” Urban Studies 52(1), 121–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Jing, Du, Huimin and Li, Si-ming. 2020. “Who is the winner? Relocated rural communities and stratification in urbanizing northwestern China.” Journal of Rural Studies 77, 159–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Yang. 2012. “Poverty reduction in China: the contribution of popularizing primary education.” China and World Economy 20(1), 105–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thøgersen, Stig. 2011. “Building a new socialist countryside: model villages in Hubei.” In Alpermann, Björn (ed.), Politics and Markets in Rural China. New York: Routledge, 172–186.Google Scholar
Tian, Felicia F., and Liu, Xin. 2019. “Zhidu huanjing, feizhengshi zhidu, yu Zhongguo xiangcun xiaoxue de xingbancunfei” (Institutional contexts, informal norms, and the development of Chinese village primary education). Shehui kexue (7), 55–66.Google Scholar
Tsai, Lily. 2007. “Solidary groups, informal accountability, and local public goods provision in rural China.” American Political Science Review 101(2), 355–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiting, Susan H. 2001. Power and Wealth in Rural China: The Political Economy of Institutional Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Siu Wai. 2015. “Land requisitions and state-village power restructuring in southern China.” The China Quarterly 224, 888–908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiao, Tangbiao. 2010. Zongzu zhengzhi – cunzhi quanli wangluo de fenxi (Lineage Politics: An Analysis of Village Power Network). Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan.Google Scholar
Xu, Yiqing, and Yao, Yang. 2015. “Informal institutions, collective action, and public investment in rural China.” American Political Science Review 109(2), 371–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xue, Eryong, and Zhou, Xiuping. 2018. “Education and anti-poverty: policy theory and strategy of poverty alleviation through education in China.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 50(12), 1101–12.Google Scholar
Yue, Ai, Tang, Bin, Shi, Yaojiang, Tang, Jingjing, Shang, Guanminjia, Medina, Alexis and Rozelle, Scott. 2018. “Rural education across China's 40 years of reform: past success and future challenges.” China Agricultural Economic Review 10(1), 93–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, Dingxin. 2009. “The mandate of heaven and performance of legitimation in historical and contemporary China.” American Behavioral Scientist 53(3), 416–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Li-An. 2014. “Xingzheng fabao zhi” (Administrative subcontract). Shehui (6), 1–38.Google Scholar
Zuo, Cai (Vera). 2015. “Promoting city leaders: the structure of political incentives in China.” The China Quarterly 224, 955–984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar