1. Social Stratification in Historical and Comparative Perspectives

2. Social stratification: an overview
Rural social stratification before 1949
Urban class formation in the early 20th c.
Urban-rural relations before 1949
Socialist simplifications & political control
Reform era transformation in historical perspective
Reform era transformations in comparative perspective

3. Rural Social Stratification before 1949
vast majority of people own and/or rent land; some areas with a few landlords; places in south have large corporate lineages owning property
Development of craft industries in the household, not a social division between agricultural and craft producing households

4. Social change and social mobility
Partible inheritance and dangers of downward social mobility
Ways to avoid downward mobility: farm land more intensively, clear new land, migrate and open new land, develop handicrafts
Commercial expansion brings economic prosperity to villagers as well as townspeople

5. Urban Class Formation in the early 20th c.
New industries creates new classes of industrial workers and entrepreneurs
New professional classes: lawyers, doctors, journalists
New forms of education: professors, school teachers, students
Urban underclasses: gangs and the unemployed-- drugs, prostitution, gambling

6. Urban-rural relations before 1949
Strong economic, social and political connections through 19th century
20th c urban centers have greater social change
Economic changes connect dynamic urban centers and countryside
Political inabilities to reach countryside from cities in first half of 20th century

7. Socialist Simplifications and Social Control
Administrative separation of urban and rural societies
Land reform and collectivization simplify rural social structures
Urban social structures also simplified—get rid of professional classes and underclass; political control (red vs. expert)

8. Social Control and Political Movements
Simplified society is easier for government to control
Few autonomous forms of association and networking
No market connections
Party state can organize political movements and mobilize people more easily in absence of more diversified and stratified society

9. Reform era transformations in historical perspective
Initial reforms begin in agriculture, then formation of rural industries—these changes reduce the urban-rural gap in some areas in the 1980s and early 1990s
These changes create new connections across urban and rural areas
Subsequent migration out of rural areas to urban centers which is a substantial change in nature of social stratification

10. Reform era transformations in comparative perspective
European pattern of modern social change is movement from rural to urban, from agricultural to industrial.
Modern western social stratification largely within urban areas as rural have few people
People in rural areas of advanced industrial societies typically poorer than people in urban areas but there are relatively few of them

11. China’s future social challenges
Urban-rural gap: China’s is largest in world because of types of economic growth
No country has reduced spatial gaps China faces among regions
No country has raised large rural sector to become ‘modern’ like cities