OYCF-UC Irvine Joint Conference on 'Social Classes in Transitional China'
Three-day conference May 26-28, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
1:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Catalina Hall
Vanguard University
A conference on the theme "Social Classes in Transitional China" will be held on May 26-28, 2006 in Costa Mesa, California. We call for paper submissions from scholars and advanced graduate students in all disciplines working in the China field. The deadline for submission of a paper or abstract is March 15, 2006. The conference is jointly sponsored by Overseas Young Chinese Forum and the Center for Asia Studies at UC Irvine.
China has undergone a major social transformation in the past two and a half decades. Gone are rampant political persecutions that define personal fortunes in the Cultural Revolution years, although the old statist institutions die hard, perpetuating party-sponsored mobility and skewed pattern of power distribution. Accompanying such a social transformation is the emergence of social groupings familiar in western industrial societies, defined by property ownership, political power and professional skills. We hear of the super rich and the downtrodden; we read about grieving families of coal miners; we catch sight of middle class crowds in Shanghai's Xintiandi. Such groupings, new and old, present us an ever refreshing landscape of class structures, and portend important political changes to come.
Scholars never look away from such a social transformation, and the last few decades have witnessed a voluminous body of scholarship under the rubrics of social inequality, mobility and stratification. This conference seeks to train a sharper focus on class and class formation than past conferences and publications, aiming at a forum that is different both in theoretical orientation and methodology. We are particularly interested in dynamics of changes uncovered by comparative-historic analysis on macro processes, analysis on changing policies and their implications. We are also interested in case studies on the emerging social classes. In our conference, we will honor the Market Transition survey research paradigm through a special lecture given by a senior scholar, and plan to devote other sections to research from other angles.
We would like the presentations to cover, but not limited to, the following topics:
Transformation of class structures: historic perspectives The emergence and convergence of urban underclass Rural-urban divide and the peasant laborers The middle class and professionals The business owners and the wealthy State, bureaucrats and class Class perception and class conflict
The conference is bi-lingual so the papers can be written and delivered in either English or Chinese. Interested participants need to submit a topic with an abstract (1-2 pages) by March 15, along with a brief C.V. that lists your credentials and publications. Those who are selected to participate need to deposit a copy of the draft paper with the OYCF program committee who in turn will make the paper available to panel discussants by around May 20. Please send your materials or inquiry via email to callforpapers@oycf.org. A notification of acceptance will be sent by April 1, 2006. Please contact callforpapers@oycf.org with your questions.
PROGRAM IS AVAILABLE HERE, AS A PDF FILE
