Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

For four decades after China initiated economic reform, rural-urban migration has become a central experience for rural families. How do families negotiate economic production and social reproduction across geographic spaces and against institutional constraints? This article identifies the concept of intergenerational contract as an analytical tool to answer this question. Based on qualitative data gathered in Hunan and Shenzhen, I reveal that (a) children’s education is pursued as a family project, deeply rooted in families’ classed social mobility aspirations; (b) by spatializing the living and responsibilities of generations, rural migrant families selectively appropriate the hierarchical economic geography produced by state policies, to balance work and family arrangements; and (c) children engage in emotional labor guided by normative expectations and rules to reciprocate older generations’ care and support. The study uncovers coexisting resilience and vulnerabilities of migrant families and opens theoretical spaces to address the linkages between family, culture, and class in contemporary China.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Gu Xiaorong is Research Fellow in Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. She has written widely on the educational issues of children and adolescents in China. Her work engages broadly with the sociology of childhood and youth, migration studies, family sociology, education, social stratification, China’s political economy and mixed-methods research. She is the guest-editor of two special issues, with Child Indicators Research and Current Sociology respectively, on shifting valuation of children in Asia and the Global South at large.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.