Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015
More than three decades of economic growth have led to significant
social change in the People�s Republic of China. This timely book
examines the emerging structures of class and social stratification: how
they are interpreted and managed by the Chinese Communist Party, and how
they are understood and lived by people themselves.
David Goodman details the emergence of a dominant class based on
political power and wealth that has emerged from the institutions of the
Party-state; a well-established middle class that is closely associated
with the Party-state and a not-so-well-established entrepreneurial
middle class; and several different subordinate classes in both the
rural and urban areas. In doing so, he considers several critical
issues: the extent to which the social basis of the Chinese political
system has changed and the likely consequences; the impact of change on
the old working class that was the socio-political mainstay of state
socialism before the 1980s; the extent to which the migrant workers on
whom much of the economic power of the PRC since the early 1980s has
been based are becoming a new working class; and the consequences of
China�s growing middle class, especially for politics.
The result is an invaluable guide for students and non-specialists
interested in the contours of ongoing social change in China.
