Village governance, social cohesion and contentment with social assistance in Northern China

ABSTRACT

The Chinese government’s legitimacy rests on ensuring the contentment of its people and avoiding social instability. In achieving these goals, the government has been massively aided by rising living standards and perhaps by reduced poverty. However, little is known about the contribution of poverty alleviation to political contentment. Therefore, ethnographic research was conducted in eight villages to explore attitudes to social assistance (dibao), a key component in poverty alleviation. Village cadres prioritized social cohesion over poverty relief in administering dibao. Nevertheless, cohesion varied markedly between villages, interacting with styles of village governance, to influence villagers’ (dis-)satisfaction with dibao.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• poverty alleviation
• social cohesion
• political contentment
• village governance
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval information

This research has been approved by the Ethics Committee of School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University. The approval number is 2,018,036.

Notes

1. This term is not taken directly from the Chinese discourse but accurately summarizes the sentiments expressed by village respondents and informants.

Additional information

Funding

This work is funded by The Economic and Social Research Council/ Department of International Development (ESRC/ DFID) under grant ES/M008800/1.

Notes on contributors

Lichao Yang

Dr. Yang Lichao, PhD (Australian National University-2012) has been awarded Harvard-Yenching Fellowship 2020-2021, and will be a Visiting Scholar, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. Her China Scholarship Council Fellowship took her to the University of Oxford in 2017 where she was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Social Policy and Interventions. She was an Associate Professor, School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University from 2012 to 2020 when she moved to become China Academy of Social Management /School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University. A proactive lecturer and researcher with learning and academic experiences in four countries, she has held 9 research grants including 7 involving international collaborative research. Her two books comprise a single authored monograph on development, gender and participation and an edited volume on contemporary development of China.

Robert Walker

Robert Walker is a professor at the China Academy of Social Management /School of Sociology Beijing Normal University under the under China’s ‘High Level Foreign Talents’ programme and at the time of writing was a Shorenstein Center Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Professor Emeritus and Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was awarded an MBE by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for his services to social policy research. In 2020 he was nominated for a Friends of China award by the Chinese Ministry of Education. His research interests are eclectic but include poverty, social security, children’s studies, policy evaluation and research methodology.