Social and Political Organization in Rural China
This three-year research project is funded by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities and began in January 2008.
The purpose of this project is to provide a historically based analysis of the new types of social organization that have developed in rural China since the beginning of decollectivization in the 1980s. We will examine the interaction between three central actors in this field:1) The Chinese state at the county, township and village levels; 2) Intellectual reformers and NGOs engaged in rural community building projects; 3) Villagers who revive and transform old networks and institutions and create new forms of social organization.
The project will engage Nordic and Chinese researchers in a close dialogue on the new forms of organization emerging in rural China, thereby benefiting from the dynamic created by combining Chinese and Nordic approaches to rural development and social organization.
For a detailed description of the project, please see the project description.