[Asia_news] PSC Seminar 3:00 pm 13 Nov

[Lyn Ning]

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Pre-field work Seminar 

 

Topic 

Middle Class Opportunities in Transitional Urban China

Speaker 

Ms. Beibei Tang, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Political and Social Change,
ANU 

 

Date & Venue 

3:00 - 4:30 pm,   Monday 13 November 2006, Seminar Room D, Coombs Building,
ANU 

 

Abstract

This research is designed to contribute to the study of social
stratification and mobility in a transitional society, with particular focus
on the mechanism of the urban middle class status attainment in contemporary
China. This research is expected to explicate the role of the Chinese new
middle classes in the process of new social structure formation, through
their opportunities to pursue and reinforce their middle class status.
Research efforts will be devoted to investigate the urban middle class
opportunities. The main research puzzles focus on 1) who became or will
become the Chinese urban middle classes; 2) how do individuals achieve
middle class status; and 3) how do they secure and reinforce their obtained
status? Empirically, two main questions drive my investigation. First, to
what extent do the individual and organizational factors, and social
networks influence one's middle class status attainment, and do clearly
defined paths of middle class status achievement exist? Second, how does the
particular path to the middle class status attainment affect behaviors,
lifestyle choices, and political and social attitudes of this new type of
middle class? By conducting both in-depth interviews in middle class
communities in Shenyang and statistical analysis on national survey data,
this research is expected to provide empirical results to the research
questions above.

 

 

**********************************************

Lyn Ning 

Department of Political and Social Change 

Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies 

Coombs Building, Building 9 

Australian National University 

Tel:  6125 4790 

Fax: 6125 5523 

Email:  <mailto:lyn.ning at anu.edu.au> lyn.ning at anu.edu.au