Urban Pauperization under China’s Social Exclusion: A Case Study of Nanjing

ABSTRACT:

This article articulates how two new urban poverty groups, namely the new urban poor and poor rural migrants, are pauperized under China’s social exclusion. We argue that the two poverty groups experience different pauperization processes and are subjected to distinctive social exclusions with relevance to their institutional-based status and changes in it. The urban poor experience status change from being beneficiaries of the planned economy to being victims of the market economy, and become a vulnerable group characterized by market exclusion and limited welfare dependency. The status of poor rural migrants changes from being institutionally inferior farmers in the planned economy to being a marginal group of urban society, which is now subjected to institutional exclusion and the resultant social exclusion. This research argues that positive social policies should be considered and a social security system should be established to pay more attention to the development issues of the urban poor.