The Uncertain Consequences of the Socialist Pursuit of Certainty: The Case of Uyghur Villagers in Eastern Xinjiang, China

Abstract

The article is based on the author’s conviction that ethnographic analysis can illuminate big issues of world history. In the framework of substantivist economic anthropology, concepts of (un) certainty and social security are applied to Chinese socialism, which has outlived its Soviet prototype. Socialism is theorized in an evolutionist perspective as the transcendence of uncertainty in modern conditions. The case study of peasants in eastern Xinjiang highlights the problems of the Uyghur minority, who are attracted to the city but lack the networks and language skills to facilitate migration, and experience discrimination in urban labor markets. China’s embedded socialism is currently successful in balancing forms of integration in such a way as to reduce existential uncertainty to a minimum for the dominant Han population, both inside and beyond the village. However, Uyghurs find it more problematic to exit their villages. This has led to resentment and violent resistance in recent years, to which there is no end in sight.