Social Transformation in China and the Development of Social Assessment

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, China has been pursuing a policy of economic expansion with extensive investment in large-scale infrastructure projects. The social side effects of these projects—such as involuntary resettlement—are but the tip of the iceberg of so-called externalities of economic transformation. This paper introduces the background and methodology of social assessment in China and argues that the assessment of social risks in development projects and programmes, undertaken as an integral part of a larger complex of future-oriented sustainability strategies in China, can be analysed as particular ‘governmental technologies’ in the sense of the Foucauldian school.

Notes

1. This model was agreed upon at the 1992 World Environmental and Development Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It was also incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals passed by the UN General Assembly in September of 2000. (http://www.developmentgoals.org/ 5 April 2003). The WTO preamble also lists sustainable development as one of its fundamental aims (Damian & Graz, 2001, pp. 597, 600).

2. This paragraph draws on Gransow 2003, p. 30, 36.

3. Official estimates for the Three Gorges project alone call for involuntary resettlement of at least 1.13 million people (Three Gorges Project: 25). Unofficial estimates suggest 2.5 million people to be resettled (Wang, 1997, p. 351).

4. The Western region development strategy started at the end of the 1990s and aims at accelerating the development of the Western and central provinces of China with priority given to minority and boarder areas, including the objective of further poverty reduction and integration of minority needs in the design and implementation of this strategy.

5. Since the People's Republic of China was founded, around 45 million people have been resettled to make room for construction projects. These also include 12 million farmers moved for dams. Since the 1990s the percentage of urban projects is on the rise (Asian Development Bank, 1999, p. 1, table 1.1.).

6. The energy crisis of the 1970s, for example, prompted the US government to exploit coal, oil and uranium reserves on Native American reservations, which in turn led to protests.

7. The Guidelines were approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC—former State Development and Planning Commission) in 2001 and released in the spring of 2002.

8. The following section is drawing on Gransow (2002).

9. The poverty line in China is two-thirds of the international standard set by the World Bank, that is, one dollar per day per person (calculated according to average purchasing power). According to this standard, China's poverty line should be around 1,000 yuan.

10. This paragraph draws on Gransow 2003, p. 39.

11. PRA stands for participatory rural assessment, participatory rapid appraisal, or variations thereon.