The Will to Survive
The Will to Survive
This chapter examines the ways in which “community” is practiced as a new mode of governing poverty in China's cities, in particular, how urban laid-off workers who have come to serve as Community cadres are forced to refashion themselves as self-motivating citizen volunteers under the party-state's campaign of building community. By delving into the fragile position of Community cadres, the chapter looks at how the specter of “the people” permeates governmental intervention through “community.” In the decaying urban periphery, state governance through “community” has served two contradictory missions. One is to prompt laid-off workers to govern themselves through voluntary participation in their community—not to depend on the work unit or the government. The other is to rescue these laid-off workers by helping them gain reemployment in the state sector.
Keywords: community, Community cadres, self-governance, building community, voluntary community participation, governmental intervention through community
Cornell Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
