| dc.description |
The all-embracing discourse of population quality (suzhi) is put to work through rural primary schools in ways that help state institutions implement policies such as accelerating demographic transition, restructuring the education system, professionalizing labour markets, promoting agricultural skills training, instituting economic liberalism and carrying out patriotic education. Suzhi discourse facilitates policy implementation in four ways. First, it imbues disparate policies with seeming coherence. Secondly, by articulating a diverse set of policies through suzhi discourse, including state retreat from welfare provisioning, state institutions can be seen to be working to improve peopleʼs well-being. Thirdly, in making people responsible for raising their own quality, the need to improve suzhi is an explanation and a prescription when individuals are adversely affected by policies. Finally, suzhi discourse encourages individuals to regulate their conduct in accordance with the political drift of society. By enfolding suzhi norms into identity formation, the education system shapes each individualʼs ongoing process of “becoming” in ways that parallel the nationʼs modernization, thereby reducing the costs of policy enforcement. |
| Название |
Turning Peasants into Modern Chinese Citizens: “Population Quality” Discourse, Demographic Transition and Primary EducationThis research was facilitated by the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences, and Academy scholar, Liu Liangqun and was supported by the Simon Population Trust and a British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship. A draft was presented at the Conference on Political Practice in Modern China, Churchill College, Cambridge, June 2002. Stephen Feutchwang and Frank Dikötter made valuable suggestions at the conference. I am also grateful for helpful feedback from Tim Wright, Geoff Harcourt and Jeremy Riley. |
