A Community of the Dispersed: The Culture of Shanghai's Neighborhood Stock Markets

Abstract

One of the greatest changes the post-Mao reform has brought to urban China is the reconfiguration of spaces and communities. This includes the diminishing role of socialist institutions such as the danwei, the once all-encompassing and penetrating work unit as both a space and community, and the growing presence of new, diverse professional and social associations and managerial organizations. China scholars have studied this phenomenon for good reason as it sheds light on the shifting boundary between the state and society, the possible emergence of independent, autonomous forces that may constitute a civil society, and the potential for radical political change that may lead to the democratization of China. However, while some communities, such as dissidents and the so-called floating population, are highly visible either because of the sheer number or the nature of their activities and thus more likely to be noted, others, especially informal, loosely connected, neighborhood-based groups, attract less attention. But what happens at the neighborhood level represents local history within urban settings, where the effects of China's broad-based urban reform meet the proverbial man in the street, either being absorbed, reacted to, or played out, in myriad, often mundane but vital ways.