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ABSTRACT
Based on 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 43 in-depth interviews with villagers of T Township, the author uncovers an emerging approach of endogenous multicultural community practice in the cities where the villagers have migrated to work. Cadres and villagers transplant their localistic networks to the new urban contexts while transforming hierarchical and clientelistic personal ties into more horizontal relations of comradeship. Through these redefined ties, they manage to transcend the persisting boundaries of village units, class status, and lineage institutions that segment the rural society, and succeed in mobilizing community resources to fight for urban survival and social justice. Although neither community service nor the social work profession is fully institutionalized in contemporary China, innovative organizing is appearing in grassroots communities in response to sweeping social changes. This article draws academic attention to these community practices and discusses their implications for the future development of strength-based social work and social services in post-socialist China.
Notes
1. Male interviewees constitute the majority of the sample because in T Township more men migrate to work in cities as breadwinners, and (as is usually the case in rural China) all the village cadres (community facilitators) in the township are male.
2. All the village cadres are Party members, so the percentage of Party membership in the sample is higher than the average in rural China.
3. Pseudonyms are used throughout the article to describe villages and villagers in the township.
4. A taxi driver holds a lease with the company management and pays the company monthly fees to operate the car. If the driver fails to generate enough income, he or she has to pay money to the company.