Class, Individual and Society Social Mobility and Social Class in China: A Comparative Study of Intragenerational Mobility Models Before and After the Economic Reforms

Abstract

Over the past half century, Chinese society has seen some very significant social, political and economic changes. These social, political and economic changes gave rise on each occasion to an unprecedented process of social mobility and a transformation of the country's social structure. The two periods, before and after the economic reforms, produced two fundamentally different models of mobility. Before the reforms, the pathways and obstacles to social mobility were controlled by the state by means of a series of institutional arrangements. Examination of the intergenerational and intragenerational mobility rates shows that the social structure has apparently become more flexible since the reforms. These mobility pathways and the characteristics of social mobility in China show that differences in socio-economic status are tending to become entrenched, that new social classes are emerging and that the boundaries between social classes are becoming more sharply defined. Keywords:China; economic reforms; intragenerational mobility models; social class; social mobility