Communist party recruitment and social stratification in urban China, 2003

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingdao Zheng
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pu Yan ◽  
Ralph Schroeder

China has in recent years seen the rapid adoption of multifunctional social networking applications such as WeChat. This paper aims to explore if China’s social stratification has influenced the adoption and use of mobile social apps and if social apps such as WeChat can help to bridge the digital divide by providing urban and rural users equal access to diverse information and communication resources. The study is based on 4 months of fieldwork in the Henan Province of central China and combines quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from semistructured interviews and focus groups. We found that there still exists a digital gap in the adoption and use of mobile social apps such as WeChat between rural and urban China, but such differences are also associated with demographic variables such as age, gender, and education level. Meanwhile, we found that WeChat has become more than a communication tool; it has also played an essential role in everyday problem-solving and information seeking for both rural and urban users. Our qualitative interviews and focus group studies reveal how WeChat influences various aspects of daily life in developing areas in China. We argue that although some divides in information seeking are being overcome, other new divides are emerging.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 902-932
Author(s):  
T. I. Morozova ◽  
◽  
V. I. Shishkin ◽  
◽  

The authors analyze and interpret the processes that occurred during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period in the Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) (RCP(b)) — All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) (AUCP(b)) as a “social elevator” from the standpoint of the theory of social mobility. The article takes into account the achievements of national historiography and is based on a wide range of published and unpublished sources. The authors reveal conditions that the party leadership imposed on those who wanted to “enter” the elevator; the number and social composition of replacements; the mechanisms, instruments, and procedures used to carry out movements between floors, as well as the volume of these movements; the transformation of the party as a social elevator; and its impact on mobility in Soviet society. The authors conclude that, thanks to the mass recruitment of workers, the height of the party pyramid quickly increased, and its structure and profile became more complex, which increased the potential for internal mobility. The forced promotion of young Communists into leading party bodies and the expansion of the number of party committees artificially caused upward intra-party mobility and the formation of a new generation of middle-level elites. The use of the nomenklatura system for appointing to the upper floors of the party hierarchy completed the process of rebuilding the RCP(b) — AUCP(b) as a social elevator controlled by Stalin’s Central Committee. As a result, by the end of NEP, the party’s influence social stratification in Soviet society became decisive.


Author(s):  
Paul Allatson

‘Post-Mao, Post-Bourdieu: Class and Taste in Contemporary China,’ is a special issue of PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies guest-edited by Yi Zheng (University of Sydney) and Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (RMIT University). The special issue explores the relationship between taste, choice and social stratification in contemporary China, and includes a new section, ‘New Perspectives Reports,’ which is intended to showcase opinion and ideas—in this case from the People’s Republic of China, in Mandarin—that complement the main articles. We hope to include this section in future issues of the journal. The guest editors and the PORTAL editorial committee would like to acknowledge that this special issue of is a result of a funding grant from the Australian Research Council, 2003-2005: ‘The Making of Middle-Class Taste: Reading, Tourism, and Educational Choices in Urban China.’ I am also delighted to announce that the PORTAL Editorial Committee has three new members, all from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney: Dr Malcolm Angelucci, Dr Beatriz Carrillo, and Dr Fredericka van der Lubbe. Paul Allatson, Editor, PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies.


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