Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Economic reforms and transition in China

Brief Summary
Economic reforms and transition from a command to a “socialist” market economy in China started in 1978 as Deng Xiaoping came in power. The process of economic reform has altered urban socio-economic and political environment and had far-reaching consequences for welfare demand and service supply. As the state is withdrawing from welfare provisioning and social equality, new forms of poverty is emerging in city. A growing number of the population living in cities faces vulnerabilities, especially the elderly and women.
As the state is unable to carry out alone the social needs of the population, there has been some government promotion of welfare activities supported and managed by non-governmental organizations (NGO). However, the relationship between the emerging civil society and the state is still confusing.

The research takes place in a Chinese NGO, named Community Alliance, founded in 2006. Community Alliance works to meet the urgent needs of the growing Chinese public interest sector. Its research program focuses on the underprivileged, especially on aging and women as they face particular vulnerabilities in today’s China. Its practical efforts support underprivileged and underserved communities. It focuses particularly on improving the lives of the elderly, especially elder women and the most disadvantaged in the community.

The present research should provide a better understanding of the role of the emerging Chinese NGOs, facing the retreat of the state from the social sector, and their growing involvement in welfare activities for the underprivileged, strictly controlled by the state.
This study will first try to analyse how the concept of NGO, in its widely accepted definition in western countries and especially the characteristic of independence from the state, is used in China to describe the new social organizations.
Then, this study would mainly focus on how NGOs are developing in a country where the government and the party are still very present in the society. What are their strategy and their degree of autonomy to build them as a new actor within the public sphere?

Contact:

Marine Michel
Master of Arts in Development Studies candidate
Graduate Institute of Development Studies, IUED
E-mail: marine_michel@yahoo.fr

Antoine Kernen
Chargé de cours
Graduate Institute of Development Studies, IUED
E-mail : antoine.kernen@iued.unige.ch