During China's transition period, labor mobility

Author: Cai Fang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book collects authoritative and representative papers on urban-rural labor mobility, comprehensively showcasing the historical context and recent advancements in labor mobility research by economists, sociologists, and demographers both domestically and internationally. The book focuses on various dimensions of labor mobility, revealing the individual characteristics of migrants and the macro-level environment of mobility. The research methodology emphasizes both normative and empirical approaches, utilizing systematic and authoritative data. Building upon previous studies, it presents numerous new findings, fully demonstrating its authority. Since the reform and opening-up, the movement of rural laborers to urban areas has become a prominent phenomenon, attracting attention from researchers and policymakers, leading to a significant volume of interdisciplinary research. At the same time, as China moves forward in building a harmonious moderately prosperous society in the new century, cross-regional and cross-sectoral labor mobility is flourishing, and scientific research in this field also needs further deepening. Under the commission of the Ford Foundation Beijing Office, we collected a representative selection of papers by researchers from economics, sociology, demography, and other disciplines both domestically and internationally on labor mobility in China since the 1990s, forming the collection of essays before you. In selecting the papers, we focused on the universality of the issues, the empirical nature of the research, the normative rigor of the methods, and the high quality of the findings, aiming to provide readers with a concise overview of the research process and progress in this field, as well as the key concerns and methodological characteristics of different disciplines through the 17 papers and 6 review articles. We believe that these selected articles, as a record, also serve as a solid starting point for further in-depth research in this field. For this reason, we are sincerely grateful to the authors of each paper, as well as to Zhao Zhong, Zheng Zhenzhen, and Wang Meiyan, who assisted in editing three sections of the collection. Their dedication and professionalism enabled us to achieve our goals with a high degree of satisfaction. During the process of editing this collection, we received enthusiastic support from many colleagues, to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks. Ms. Sarah Cook (Shalin), the project officer at the Ford Foundation Beijing Office at the time, discussed the selection process with us multiple times, provided editorial suggestions, and consistently offered support and encouragement throughout our work. Mr. Andrew Watson, the Chief Representative of the Ford Foundation Beijing Office, also showed great interest in the progress of this project. Xu Jin, Wang Meiyan, and Lian Pengling from the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences contributed significantly to coordination and communication efforts, with Lian Pengling also meticulously proofreading all the manuscripts.