New Mentalities of Government in China (2016, Routledge) (original) (raw)
Related papers
China's Governmentalities: Governing Change, Changing Government (2011, 2009, Routledge)
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) embarked on a programme of ‘reform and openness’ in the late 1970s, Chinese society has undergone a series of dramatic transformations in almost all realms of social, cultural, economic and political life and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a global power. China’s post-1978 transition from ‘socialist plan’ to ‘market socialism’ has also been accompanied by significant shifts in how the practice and objects of government are understood and acted upon. China’s Governmentalities outlines the nature of these shifts, and contributes to emerging studies of governmentality in non-western and non-liberal settings, by showing how neoliberal discourses on governance, development, education, the environment, community, religion, and sexual health, have been raised in other contexts. In doing so, it opens discussions of governmentality to ‘other worlds’ and the glocal politics of the present. The book will appeal to scholars from a wide range of disciplines interested in the work of Michel Foucault, neo-liberal strategies of governance, and governmental rationalities in contemporary China.
The PRC Political Regime's Reaction to the Basic Needs of the Population
This article is an attempt to explain the specific features of China's socially oriented policy at the beginning of the 21st century from the point of view of a systemic and functional analysis of the PRC political system. Despite the limited character of the existing democratic mechanisms in the country, the Chinese authorities demonstrate a sufficiently high level of responsiveness to the everyday needs of the population, which have become strained in the course of market reforms. The article presents an analysis disclosing certain transformation processes of the political regime of modern China.
Neo-Socialist Governmentality: Managing Freedom in the Peoples' Republic of China
Economy and Society, 2019
This article conceptualizes 'neo-socialist governmentality' as a set of rationalities of governance that aim to shape, nurture, constrain and guide the autonomy of Chinese subjects in the post-revolutionary era. Contrasting neo-liberal and neo-socialist governmentalities, we outline the mechanisms of translation and coordination that open, appropriate and restrain spaces for the pluralistic problematization of concerns for the self, culture, and society. Focusing on the discourses and institutions of 'constructing spiritual civilization' and drawing on research conducted among a range of voluntary groups, we highlight the productive tensions inherent to the neo-socialist aim of fusing the centrifugal forces of socialist, market and Chinese civilizational subjectivities and authorities. Our case points to the value of theorizing distinct forms of governmentality associated with different historical trajectories and socio-political systems.
Living with Reform: China Since 1989
London: Zed Books, 2006
China is huge. China is growing more powerful. Yet China remains a great mystery to most people in the West. This contemporary history, based on the latest scholarly research, offers a balanced perspective of the continuing legacy of Maoism in the lives not only of China's leaders but China's working people. It outlines the ambitious economic reforms taken since the 1980s and shows the complex responses to the consequences of reform in China today. Cheek shows the domestic concerns and social forces that shape the foreign policy of one of the worlds great powers. His analysis will equip the reader to judge media reports independently and to consider the experience and values not only of the Chinese government but China's workers, women, and minorities.
The Rise of Therapeutic Governing in Postsocialist China
In this article, I explore how and why psychological intervention, often in the name of guanai (care), has gradually become a critical tool of managing the population and governing society in postsocialist China. Psychological counselors and experts are becoming a new form of authority, an indispensable part of creating and managing knowable, stable, and governable subjects for the military, the police, schools, and enterprises. 'Therapeutic governing' refers to the adoption of the therapeutic ethos, techniques, and care to improve the management of the work force and to help individuals cope with life in a rapidly changing society. I examine what drives local authorities to pursue this change, and how therapeutic governing takes on a different character and significance given China's unique path. I suggest that incorporating psychotherapeutic intervention into postsocialist governing can simultaneously produce disciplining and nurturing, repressive and unfettering effects in everyday life.
Oxford Bibliographies Oxford University Press
There are major books about the Chinese new middle class, and about governmentality in Western and nonwestern countries. In respect to the latter, Foucault 1982 focuses on how power is progressively elaborate, rationalized, and centralized in the form of, and under the auspices of, state institutions. As such, the neutral meaning of governmentality is about the processes or devices that the state uses to regulate or shape, from a distance, how people (should) behave within its territory to act in the interests of the state. Goodman 2008 argues the new rich emerged from political, economic, and social conditions in post-Reform China. Goodman mentions a rising Chinese wealthy class and its consumption within the property market and global real estate market all over the world-including Africa, North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia-thus forming a new middle-class culture in post-Reform China. Ren 2012 does not offer a precise definition of the Chinese new middle class in Chinese context either by statistical categories or qualitative criteria; rather this book argues the Chinese new middle class is part of a strategy of the Chinese state to establish a harmonious middle-class society in order to manage, educate, and control the rest of the Chinese population. This is soft control rather than hard manipulation and indoctrination. Tsang 2014 adopts a sociocultural perspective to highlight the emergence of the Chinese new middle class in post-Reform China. Her work, as shown throughout this article, is based on interviews with entrepreneurs, professionals, and regional party cadres from a range of age groups, and she argues that Western class categories do not directly apply to China and that the Chinese new middle class is distinguished more by sociocultural than by economic factors. Zhang 2010 argues the emergence of the Chinese new middle class and examines how the rise of private homeownership is reconfiguring urban space in today's China. The author capitalizes on ethnographic data to examine how the middle class in China, such as professionals and entrepreneurs, dominates and influences the consumer culture in China. Pierson 2011 examines the state from the birth of modernity to the current postmodern and highly globalized politics of the 21st century, also mentioning how the state suffered from other crises after the global financial crisis. Joseph 2012 offers an original approach to international relations by analyzing the concept of governmentality in Western countries. Dean 2010 argues governmentality is concerned with the ways the state exercises power over the people by shaping the choices, desires, and lifestyles of individuals and groups instead of imposing prohibitions or controls, known as disciplinary power refers to imposing prohibitions. Jeffreys 2009 outlines the social transformation in the realms of social, cultural, economic, and political life in China; the concept of governmentality in nonwestern and nonliberal settings is introduce, by showing how neoliberal discourses on governance, education, religion, and sexual health have been raised in Chinese contexts. Rose 1999 points out that Foucault was not always consistent in his use of this concept, while also arguing there are still merits in building upon and extending the use of Foucault's original conceptualization of governmentality. Chen and Goodman 2013 examines the Chinese middle class from a political science perspective, and its different cultural identities and consumption patterns, lifestyles, and political behavior in today's China. This book argues the new rich emerged from political, economic, and social conditions in post-reform China. This book mentions a rising Chinese wealthy class and its consumption in property markets and global real estate markets all over the world-including Africa, North America, Europe and Southeast Asia-to form a new middle-class culture in post-Reform China. The book focuses more from a political perspective about how the Chinese new middle cass are not active in political participation, but active in economic development. Jeffreys, Elaine. China's Governmentalities: Governing Change, Changing Government. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2009. This book outlines the social transformation in the realms of social, cultural, economic and political life in China. The concept of governmentality in nonwestern and nonliberal settings is introduced by showing how neoliberal discourses on governance, education, religion, and sexual health have been raised in Chinese contexts. Joseph, Johnathan. The Social in the Global: Social Theory, Governmentality and Global Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Governing and Ruling: The Political Logic of Taxation in China
Contemporary Sociology , 2023
science serves something akin to what Marcuse referred to as ''repressive desublimation'' or the proliferation of transgressive experiences that do not serve genuine transformational ends but merely end by shoring up the very systemic logics that they are supposed to be against. In the end, Thorpe succeeds in diagnosing the role of sociology as a handmaiden in the reproduction of our pathological social reality rather than a genuine means to undermine it. The hyper-subjectivism and social atomization created by neoliberalism has meant the dissolution of social solidarism and the decline of the possibility of a critical form of social knowledge with democratic, public aims. Sociology in Post-Normal Times is a book that should be read and discussed widely, for this reviewer fears that, if Thorpe is right, such books will be fewer and farther between.
The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 2014
The articles collected in this special issue thus show that despite the remarkable economic achievement in recent decades, the contemporary rise of China has brought various critical issues to the fore, which the country's government and the ruling Communist Party must urgently address. These are issues spanning the domains of political structure, foreign reach of the country's influence, socio-economic malaise and public policy in education to bridge the rural–urban gap, reduce inequality and maintain long-term social stability. https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/cjas/article/view/4755/5186 https://www.dropbox.com/s/47ge9s3wqjs0jl3/emileyeoh-lflye-CJAS-V32N2-4755-18332-1-PB.pdf