Agriculture to Industry (The Labor and Life of Landless Farmers)

Author: Zhang Ruli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This article's topic has two aspects of significance: First, the transformation from agriculture to industry is a unique form of rural residents entering the city during the process of urbanization, and until now, there has been a lack of systematic research on this; second, the absorption and exclusion effects of China's existing system on farmers entering the city are concentrated in the transformation from agriculture to industry, which is very meaningful for people to anticipate and predict the constraints on farmers entering the city after the household registration system reform. The concepts of "marginalization" and "re-marginalization" are of great value for analyzing the living conditions, social status, social identity, and the relationship between farmers in the existing urban system. — Professor Sun Liping, Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University
Based on a large amount of literature and reliable field research data, the author analyzes the urbanization of the transformation from agriculture to industry in China over the past 50 years, and focuses on the living conditions of these workers to analyze their characteristics in the urban economic and social life in different periods. The author points out that during the planned economy period, the workers were actively marginalized; when the market economy developed and the comparative benefits of urban-rural farmers changed, they were passively marginalized; and when the efficiency of state-owned enterprises declined, layoffs, and unemployment increased, these workers were re-marginalized. The author's description of the re-marginalization of the workers is detailed and the analysis is profound. This research on the consequences of farmers' urbanization under the background of sharp market changes provides valuable insights for China's choice of rapid rural urbanization. — Professor Wang Sibin, Department of Sociology, Peking University
The transformation from agriculture to industry is a unique institutional arrangement in China for displaced farmers to find urban employment due to land expropriation. Through field research, the author analyzes the characteristics of these workers in the urban economic and social life in different periods and summarizes their living conditions: the active marginalization of workers under the planned economy's dual urban-rural system, the passive marginalization when the market economy developed and the comparative benefits of urban-rural farmers changed, and the re-marginalization under the conditions of declining efficiency of state-owned enterprises, increased layoffs, and unemployment. The author points out that these phenomena have profound institutional causes and concludes that the marginalization of the workers is characterized by institutional absorption and exclusion, which affects the marginalization of different types of workers. This research also provides profound insights for analyzing the consequences of farmers' urbanization under the background of sharp market changes.