Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.11, 2019

Social and Cultural Subjectivity in the Development of Chinese Society—A Case Study of Rural Development and Poverty Reduction in the Past 40 Years

(Abstract)

Wang Chunguang

China’s experience over its forty-year development has become a topical issue in world academic circles and even policy circles, but it presents us with theoretical challenges. Taking the Chinese miracle in rural development and poverty alleviation as an example, we explore the internal causes of China’s success in this field in three respects: history, practice and theoretical logic. The theory of the developmental state regards social and cultural subjectivity as being merely an accessory to the functioning of the state, ignoring the independence and key role of social and cultural subjectivity. The theory of “the expansion of peasant rationality” emphasizes the value of farmers’ subjectivity, neglecting the fact that it is only a part of social and cultural subjectivity and cannot represent the whole. Social and cultural subjectivity is embodied in four interrelated and mutually supporting aspects: family and extended family, quasi-family-based social relationships, social organization and regional society. Social and cultural subjectivity has played an important role in China’s rural development and poverty alleviation over the past forty years. There are still some problems in its development, but a constructive and cooperative relationship between state subjectivity and social and cultural subjectivity is an important mechanism in China’s rural development and poverty alleviation. State intervention is therefore necessary for the cultivation of social and cultural subjectivity, as is a focus on the centrality of social and cultural issues in research on rural development and poverty reduction.