Social Structure Changes in Central China: A Case Study of Social Classes in Hanchuan City

Author: Hu Shuntin, Hu Gongmin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Hanchuan City is located in central China. Since the reform and opening-up, its social structure has undergone significant changes. As a county-level city in central China, the process of social structural transformation in Hanchuan City is representative. Therefore, the "Research Team on the Transformation of Chinese Social Structure" of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences selected Hanchuan as a survey site for the county-level city study of the transformation of Chinese social structure. Hanchuan City: A Survey of the Social Class Structure of a Central County-Level City is the outcome of this survey. Hanchuan City: A Survey of the Social Class Structure of a Central County-Level City includes one general report and 33 sub-reports. The reports provide a detailed description of the transformation of Hanchuan's social class structure over the past 20 years since the reform and opening-up, offering a comprehensive analysis of the changes in Hanchuan's social classes. Based on occupational classification, production asset ownership, and employment status, the report divides Hanchuan's population into nine classes: the managerial class, the private enterprise owner class, the professional class, the self-employed class, the commercial and service class, the worker class, the peasant class, the unemployed class, and the non-labor force class. The report defines the status and characteristics of each class. It proposes that the reform and opening-up have brought profound changes to Hanchuan's society and have also led to structural changes in its social class structure. The original social structure has undergone significant differentiation, with new social classes gradually forming. The differences in social, economic, lifestyles, and interest identification among the classes have become increasingly clear, and a new social class structure has emerged. The research project on the "transformation of social structure in Hanchuan" lasted for two years, with over 100 people participating in the survey work. A total of more than 2,000 questionnaires and interview records were collected. This survey is also the largest-scale social structure survey of Hanchuan in the past 20 years. From Hanchuan City: A Survey of the Social Class Structure of a Central County-Level City, we can not only understand the overall picture of the transformation of Hanchuan City's social structure since the reform and opening-up but also gain insights into the broader process of social structural transformation in China.