Qionggen (Roots of Poverty) and Fanshen (Economic Revival) :A Study on the Reproductive Mechanism of Rural Elites after the Second Rural Reform in China
During the second rural reform in the 1980's,the rural economic reform,market economy and urbanization exerted an important effect on the reproduction structure of China's rural elites .Our studies of Village A,Village B and Village H in Shandong Province of China demonstrate one characteristic of the regenerative or the reproductive mechanism of the rural elite after reform and opening up .The″New Rural Elite″(cultivated by the Communist Party of China after 1949) and the″Traditional Rural Elite″(the rural elite before 1949) have experienced enormous changes .The continuation of generations exemplifies the endogenous change of the contemporary rural structure .One longitudinal study shows that the″New Rural Elite″and their descendants broke the″QionggenCurse,″or the poverty curse,while the″Traditional Rural Elite″ and their descendants have achieved Fanshen,or economic revival .The contemporary rural social structure has been reshaped by the new generation of the two elites .The former relies on the resources,chiefly the political power,of the political system,and the economic resources of other institutional arrangements . Their generational succession is then realized by turning these resources into economic support .The latter,on the other hand,relies on the rediscovery of cultural and economic resources .During this process of revival,″verbal instruction,″i .e .family teaching by personal example and verbal instruction,is the main recessive mechanism to pass on their characteristics,although the″dominant″economic and power resources play an important role .The verbal instruction is essential for the traditional elite to increase their descendants' human capital and acquire new economic resources and social capital,and to eventually acquire cultural resources to achieve a non-agricultural social identity .With the development of the market economy and the rapid urbanization,the two groups of elites are now relying on the same cultural resources educational opportunities for their children to achieve an urban identity,no matter whether their traditional reproduction has been achieved with political resources or cultural capital accumulation .In addition,the rural marginal population may resort to violence to acquire resources and become the″quasi-elite,″which impacts the rural elite structure,but further study is needed to track their reproductive mechanism .This research tries to bring up some open topics in the process of China's urbanization :Will the generative and regenerative mechanisms of the contemporary rural elite change in the future ?Will they succeed in achieving non-agricultural identities ?These are the crucial issues for rural governance and supply-related policies in the future .
韩福国 宋道雷. “穷根”与“翻身”:第二次乡村变革后的精英再生产机制研究[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2014, 44(3): 115-130.
Han Fuguo Song Daolei. Qionggen (Roots of Poverty) and Fanshen (Economic Revival) :A Study on the Reproductive Mechanism of Rural Elites after the Second Rural Reform in China. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2014, 44(3): 115-130.