Politics and Life Chances in a State Socialist Regime: Dual Career Paths into the Urban Chinese Elite, 1949 to 1996

Abstract

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Did send-down experience benefit youth? A reevaluation of the social consequences of forced urban–rural migration during China’s Cultural Revolution

“…Prior to the 1978 economic reform, Chinese people were restricted from moving at will to other places without government approval. The most common justifications for rural-to-urban migration included pursuit of post-secondary education in cities, military service, job recruitment in urban areas, marriage to persons with urban residence status, and family reunion (Goldstein, Goldstein and Guo 1991;Shixun and Xian 1992;Walder 1989;Walder, Li and Treiman 2000;Wu and Treiman 2004). Not only were the stated criteria hard to meet, but the approval process was also complicated, tedious, and sometimes arbitrary.…”

“…Their children were deprived of many opportunities, such as admission to higher educational institutions and assignment to professional and administrative positions. Meanwhile, children whose parents were peasants, workers, party members or former Red Army soldiers were given an edge in school admission, employment and promotion (Li and Walder 2001;Liu 1995;Seybolt 1977;Walder 1989;Walder, Li and Treiman 2000;Zang 2000). Gender inequality was also substantially reduced, as the gender gap in basic education narrowed during this period (Hannum and Xie 1994).…”

“…Many subject areas, including the humanities and social sciences, were "chopped off" from study programs (Bernstein 1977;Cheng and Manning 2003). The generation thus lost opportunities for human-capital accumulation-that is, to receive proper education and acquire skills that enhance productivity (Deng and Treiman 1997;Walder, Li and Treiman 2000). Second, colleges and universities were virtually closed for admission of new students during the Cultural Revolution until 1972, when a small number of students began to be admitted on the basis of political loyalty and family background rather than academic credentials (Shirk 1982).…”

How Can One Get Ahead in the Contemporary Labour Market of China? — Examining the Changing Stratification Mechanisms through Job-Attainment Patterns

“…Another significant change was almost completely ignored by most transition scholars, except for Andrew Walder. Walder and his collaborators' (Walder, 2003(Walder, , 2004Walder et al, 2000) studies resonate with King and Szelenyi's (2005) argument, by pointing out that the CCP would have spontaneously changed its policy agenda, even without the reform. Rather than by using backwards inference, it may be more appropriate to claim that the shift of the CCP's policy agenda to economic performance indicated the launch of the reform.…”

Crossing the frontiers. Peer coaching and self-managing in the process of the professional development in multicultural environment

“…They are a kind of mutual exchange warranty [Williams, Nussbaum, 2001]. The relationship is formed on mutual favours exchanged among the members of the group [Tan, Snell, 2002] [Walder, Li, Treiman, 2000]. Due to Confucianism they become the social norm.…”