Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2017

 

China’s Semi-Industrial, Semi-Agricultural Mode and Incremental Urbanization

(Abstract)

 

Xia Zhuzhi and He Xuefeng

 

With the rapid development of industrialization and the continuous reform of the urban-rural system, both the connotations and the nature of China’s dual urban-rural structure have changed greatly. Farmers continue to enjoy the position of obtaining their basic means of production and livelihood from rural areas while gaining the rights of free employment and residence in cities and towns. Farmers are embedded as “dynamic subjects” into the Chinese-style dual urban-rural structure, and earn a semi-industrial and semi-agricultural livelihood based on the inter-generational division of labor—the general mode of agrarian household reproduction in the transition period. In this process of household reproduction, the two-way migration of farmers between urban and rural areas and their inter-generational relays accelerate urbanization; at the same time, rural communities have also maintained their orderly differentiation and stability, avoiding the slums commonly found in large developing countries and the associated political and social turmoil. This has fostered incremental urbanization with unique Chinese characteristics and advantages. From a comparative perspective, Chinese farmers in the process of urbanization have the “stratum subjectivity” to grasp their own destiny, and are the beneficiaries rather than “victims” of modernization. This indicates the far-reaching impact of the outcomes of China’s socialist system.