Sophia Woodman

Local politics, local citizenship: socialized governance in contemporary China

The demise of collective units that attach citizens to the state in China has been overstated; the hegemonic form of Chinese citizenship today links participation and welfare entitlement to membership in a collective unit in a specific locality. This article presents an ethnographic account of the operation of this “normal” form of local citizenship in resident and villager committees in Tianjin. These committees combine participatory and welfare dimensions of citizenship in one institutional setting. Here, citizens are bound to the state through a face-to-face politics that acts both as a mechanism of control and a channel for claims-making, a mode of rule I term “socialized governance,” which blurs the boundaries between political compliance and social conformity, and makes social norms a strong force in the citizenship order. While variably achieved in practice, this form of citizenship represents an ideal that shapes conditions for politics and perceptions of inequality.

Introduction: Practicing citizenship in contemporary China

Abstract Citizenship in China – and elsewhere in the global South – has been perceived as either a distorted echo of the ‘real’ democratic version in Europe and North America, or an orientalized ‘other’ that defines what citizenship is not. In contrast, adopting a ‘connected histories’ perspective makes Chinese citizenship a constitutive part of a modernity that is still unfolding. Since the nineteenth century, concerns about citizenship have been central to debates about the building of state and society in China. Some of these concerns are echoed in key tensions related to the practices of citizenship in China today, particularly in three areas: a state preference for sedentarism and governing citizens in place vs. growing mobility, sometimes facilitated by the state; a perception that state-building and development requires a strong state vs. ideas and practices of participatory citizenship; and submission of the individual to the ‘collective’ (state, community, village, family etc.) vs. the rising salience of conceptions of self-development and self-making projects. Exploring manifestations of these tensions can contribute to thinking about citizenship beyond China, including the role of the local in forming citizenship orders; how individualization works in the absence of liberal individualism; and how ‘social citizenship’ is increasingly becoming a reward to ‘good citizens’, rather than a mechanism for achieving citizen equality.

Segmented Publics and the Regulation of Critical Speech in China

Abstract In contemporary China strict censorship coexists with significant freedom of expression and restrictions are enforced inconsistently. Yet certain principles underlie determinations of what is acceptable public speech, depending on the institutional location of the utterance, the identity of the speaker and the time of the event. What is allowed depends on the specific circumstances, but it results from patterns in the institutional practices of Chinese politics that involve constraining debate within “segmented publics”. This article analyses how formal and informal rules limit discussions of particular issues to specific segmented publics, and how varying degrees of debate are permitted within these institutional fields, based on the expertise of their members or, in the case of associations, their engagement in specific areas of policy implementation. Another dimension of variation relates to the personalised character of authority in the Chinese system of governance, which means that leaders set the tone for debate within institutional spheres they control. State control, however, is only part of the story: segmented publics are dynamic spaces where boundaries are permeable, often contested, and constantly in formation. The operation of segmented publics is explored here through case studies of activism in the legal field; on women’s rights in the associational field; at the grassroots in resident and villager committees; and in oppositional publics.

Practising Self-Government: A Comparative Study of Autonomous Regions

Introduction: nature and origins of autonomy Yash Ghai 1. Seeking autonomy in a decentralised federation: the case of Quebec Richard Simeon and Luc Turgeon 2. Property and happiness through autonomy: the self-government of the Aland Islands in Finland Markku Suksi 3. Puerto Rico: autonomy or colonial subordination? Efren Rivera-Ramos 4. Foundations and institutions of South-Tyrols autonomy in Italy Oskar Peterlini 5. Kashmir: the vanishing autonomy Jill Cottrell 6. Autonomies of scale: precarious self-government on Norfolk Island Helen Irving 7. The autonomy of Catalonia: the unending search for a place within pluralist Spain Carlos Flores Juberias 8. Zanzibar in Tanzania: from sovereign to autonomy? Yash Ghai 9. Defective democracy in a failed state? Bridging constitutional design, politics and ethnic division in Bosnia-Herzegovina Josef Marko 10. Hong Kongs autonomy: dialects of powers and institutions Yash Ghai 11. The autonomy of devolved Scotland Chris Himsworth 12. Macau: transformation of a historic autonomy Paulo Cardinal 13. Autonomy and conflict resolution in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Anthony J. Regan 14. Comparative perspectives on institutional frameworks for autonomy Sophia Woodman and Yash Ghai.

Legitimating exclusion and inclusion: ‘culture’, education and entitlement to local urban citizenship in Tianjin and Lanzhou

Abstract The paradigmatic ‘migrant’ in China is a worker of rural origin, but more than 30% of the one-fifth of the population living and working away from their place of hukou registration are inter-urban migrants, a group mostly neglected by scholars. Based on ethnographic observation and interviews from two Chinese cities – one on the coast, one in the impoverished interior – this article examines how a range of types of migrants deal with citizenship and mobility. It shows that a key criterion for being able to settle in a new place and gain access to local social citizenship is migrants’ level of ‘culture,’ expressed primarily through formal education. Linking access to local citizenship for migrants to their ‘cultural quality’ goes largely unquestioned, as it is connected to the legitimacy of education as a means of differentiating among citizens more generally. This logic shapes family migration strategies as parents seek to ensure that their children will receive an education that enables access to the kinds of good jobs and benefits that enable full citizenship wherever they live.

Legitimating exclusion and inclusion

Abstract The paradigmatic ‘migrant’ in China is a worker of rural origin, but more than 30% of the one-fifth of the population living and working away from their place of hukou registration are inter-urban migrants, a group mostly neglected by scholars. Based on ethnographic observation and interviews from two Chinese cities – one on the coast, one in the impoverished interior – this article examines how a range of types of migrants deal with citizenship and mobility. It shows that a key criterion for being able to settle in a new place and gain access to local social citizenship is migrants’ level of ‘culture,’ expressed primarily through formal education. Linking access to local citizenship for migrants to their ‘cultural quality’ goes largely unquestioned, as it is connected to the legitimacy of education as a means of differentiating among citizens more generally. This logic shapes family migration strategies as parents seek to ensure that their children will receive an education that enables access to the kinds of good jobs and benefits that enable full citizenship wherever they live.

Legitimating exclusion and inclusion: ‘Culture’ and local citizenship entitlements in Tianjin and Lanzhou

Abstract The paradigmatic ‘migrant’ in China is a worker of rural origin, but more than 30% of the one-fifth of the population living and working away from their place of hukou registration are inter-urban migrants, a group mostly neglected by scholars. Based on ethnographic observation and interviews from two Chinese cities – one on the coast, one in the impoverished interior – this article examines how a range of types of migrants deal with citizenship and mobility. It shows that a key criterion for being able to settle in a new place and gain access to local social citizenship is migrants’ level of ‘culture,’ expressed primarily through formal education. Linking access to local citizenship for migrants to their ‘cultural quality’ goes largely unquestioned, as it is connected to the legitimacy of education as a means of differentiating among citizens more generally. This logic shapes family migration strategies as parents seek to ensure that their children will receive an education that enables access to the kinds of good jobs and benefits that enable full citizenship wherever they live.

Practising Self-Government: Frontmatter

Introduction: nature and origins of autonomy Yash Ghai 1. Seeking autonomy in a decentralised federation: the case of Quebec Richard Simeon and Luc Turgeon 2. Property and happiness through autonomy: the self-government of the Aland Islands in Finland Markku Suksi 3. Puerto Rico: autonomy or colonial subordination? Efren Rivera-Ramos 4. Foundations and institutions of South-Tyrols autonomy in Italy Oskar Peterlini 5. Kashmir: the vanishing autonomy Jill Cottrell 6. Autonomies of scale: precarious self-government on Norfolk Island Helen Irving 7. The autonomy of Catalonia: the unending search for a place within pluralist Spain Carlos Flores Juberias 8. Zanzibar in Tanzania: from sovereign to autonomy? Yash Ghai 9. Defective democracy in a failed state? Bridging constitutional design, politics and ethnic division in Bosnia-Herzegovina Josef Marko 10. Hong Kongs autonomy: dialects of powers and institutions Yash Ghai 11. The autonomy of devolved Scotland Chris Himsworth 12. Macau: transformation of a historic autonomy Paulo Cardinal 13. Autonomy and conflict resolution in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Anthony J. Regan 14. Comparative perspectives on institutional frameworks for autonomy Sophia Woodman and Yash Ghai.

Practising Self-Government: Acknowledgements

Introduction: nature and origins of autonomy Yash Ghai 1. Seeking autonomy in a decentralised federation: the case of Quebec Richard Simeon and Luc Turgeon 2. Property and happiness through autonomy: the self-government of the Aland Islands in Finland Markku Suksi 3. Puerto Rico: autonomy or colonial subordination? Efren Rivera-Ramos 4. Foundations and institutions of South-Tyrols autonomy in Italy Oskar Peterlini 5. Kashmir: the vanishing autonomy Jill Cottrell 6. Autonomies of scale: precarious self-government on Norfolk Island Helen Irving 7. The autonomy of Catalonia: the unending search for a place within pluralist Spain Carlos Flores Juberias 8. Zanzibar in Tanzania: from sovereign to autonomy? Yash Ghai 9. Defective democracy in a failed state? Bridging constitutional design, politics and ethnic division in Bosnia-Herzegovina Josef Marko 10. Hong Kongs autonomy: dialects of powers and institutions Yash Ghai 11. The autonomy of devolved Scotland Chris Himsworth 12. Macau: transformation of a historic autonomy Paulo Cardinal 13. Autonomy and conflict resolution in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Anthony J. Regan 14. Comparative perspectives on institutional frameworks for autonomy Sophia Woodman and Yash Ghai.