The limits of planning in China: equalizing basic education through the Internet

Abstract

Planning, in its reinvented form, is an important tool for government macro-steering, but the role of the Internet in planning has been overlooked by researchers. Educational reforms are illustrative of the planning processes that characterize policy-making in China. Through a case study of educational policy in Qingbaijiang District in Chengdu, this paper examines how the Internet changes the limits of planning in educational equalization. The trial-site status of the district allows us to see how pragmatic adaptation of the new technology works on the ground, enabling an overall improvement in quality. However, at the same time, this strengthens elite schools, thus, paradoxically, creating inequality on a different level. Hence, this is a unique case to understand the limits of planning in China, and the key implication for research is that the Internet – and indeed techno-science as a social order – should be included in future analyses of planning.

Keywords::

• planning
• Internet
• basic education
• rural China
• limits

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ralph Schroeder, Elisa Oreglia, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on previous versions of this paper. All remaining mistakes are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Basic Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sichuan University [skyb201201]; Chinese National Social Science Foundation [13FZZ002]; Sichuan Province Philosophy and Social Science Key Research Base Project [QGXH13-1].

Notes on contributors

Jesper Schlæger

Jesper Schlæger (PhD, University of Copenhagen) is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Administration at Sichuan University. He is currently also Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University. His research interests include e-government, policy implementation, and collaboration in public service production.

Qian Wang

Qian Wang (PhD, Southwest Jiaotong University) is the Executive Director of the National Cadre Training Base of Sichuan University. He is also Professor in the School of Public Administration at Sichuan University. His research interests include e-government, crowd-sourcing, and education informatization.