Fracture and Fragmentation (Empirical Analysis of Social Class Stratification in Contemporary Chinese Society)

Author: Li Chunling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: In recent years, the rapid expansion of income disparities and other socio-economic differences has attracted widespread attention. Theorists and scholars have proposed various perspectives on the current state and future trends of socio-economic differentiation. Sun Liping's "fractured society" view suggests that the current differentiation has led to polarization, while Lu Xueyi and others' "middle-class modern society" view argues that a modernizing social structure with a middle-class tendency is emerging. Meanwhile, Li Lulu's "structuralization" argument posits that a class structure with increasingly distinct boundaries has already formed, whereas Li Qiang and Li Peilin's "fragmentation" perspective emphasizes the pluralistic nature of differentiation and the difficulty in forming a class structure. This book employs rich empirical data and social stratification research methods to examine and validate these theoretical viewpoints, concluding that the prevailing trend of current socio-economic differentiation is a multi-layered structuralization. It further predicts that the future trajectory of this differentiation trend will depend on the competition and compromise of interests between social strata and groups, as well as on national policy direction.