The Role of Guanxi in Social Exclusion against the Background of Social Stratification: Case Studies of Two Chinese Villages

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is based on two case studies of social exclusion in two Chinese villages against the background of social stratification.Five types of social exclusion of the poor—housing, marriage, renqing, ritual, and gossip exclusion—are identified, which shrink the guanxi networks held by the poor. This in turn weakens their social and ritual capital and lowers their social status,leading to the reproduction of inequality. The research presented here finds that the vertical exclusiveness of guanxi, which is based on the concepts of in-group and out-group separation, superior and inferior separation, and symmetrical reciprocity, results in social exclusion of the poor. This process is underpinned by the instrumental use of the traditional Confucian ritual(li), in which ideas of modern social welfare, equality, and universalism are insufficient.