About the Book
How do rural Chinese households deal with the conflicting pressures of migrating into cities to work as well as staying at home to preserve their fields? This is particularly challenging for rice farmers, because paddy fields have to be cultivated continuously to retain their soil quality and value. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and written sources, Rural-Urban Migration and Agro-Technological Change in Post-Reform China describes farming households' strategic solutions to this predicament. It shows how, in light of rural-urban migration and agro-technological change, they manage to sustain both migration and farming. It innovatively conceives rural households as part of a larger farming community of practice that spans both staying and migrating household members and their material world. Focusing on one exemplary resource - paddy fields - it argues that socio-technical resources are key factors in understanding migration flows and migrant-home relations. Overall, this book provides rare insights into the rural side of migration and farmers' knowledge and agency.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements, INTRODUCTION, Arguments and aims of the book, Agriculture and migration, From 'migrant worlds' to 'community of practice' worlds,Knowledge, repertoire, and agency, Accessing the rural-urban community of practice, Structure of the book, References, 1. HOW THE PREDICAMENT AROSE, Modern agriculture in Anren County, De-collectivization and marketization, Abolition of the collective welfare system, The new urban economy and increased migration, References, 2. RICE KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS IN TRANSITION, Transformation of agricultural knowledge transmission,Transformation of the repertoire of knowledge,Agricultural deskilling and extended knowledge repertoires, References, 3. REFERENCE MODELS FOR TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE, Transmitting farming knowledge through proverbs, Educating the masses, Textualizing vernacular knowledge, Negotiating knowledge and farmer-state relationships, References, 4. TECHNOLOGICAL CHOICE IN THE WAKE OF MIGRATION, Tilling with power ploughs and oxen,Harvesting with sickles and combine harvesters, Choosing harvesting technologies,Technological choice from a repertoire perspective,References, 5. LAND-USE STRATEGIES, Sustaining intensive rice farming, De-intensifying rice farming, More than linear, more than technical, References, CONCLUSION: A SKILL PERSPECTIVE ON MIGRATION, Agency beyond resistance, Decision making beyond economic reasoning, Technology beyond linear progress, Migration beyond dichotomies, References, Appendix,I. Glossary, II. Solar terms, III. Song of the 24 Solar Terms, IV. Examples of proverbs and encoded knowledge, References, Index.
About the Author :
Lena Kaufmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of History and an associate lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, both at the University of Zurich. Trained as an anthropologist and sinologist, she spent nearly four years in China, researching migration in the city and countryside.
Review :
[...] the book strives to achieve an understanding of migration and farmers that it is beyond the usual. This is a refreshing, well-written, and thoughtful book. [...] The book is a significant contribution to research on migration, agriculture, and rural-urban development in China., - C. Cindy Fan, University of California, Los Angeles, The China Journal, Volume 89 (2023),
Kaufmann has produced an excellent anthropology-driven analysis... of paddy rice farmers with a focus on the complex processes of rural-urban migration in China... Her insight and analysis of the transformations of knowledge systems is first-class.,- Prof. em. Jørgen Delman, University of Copenhagen, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies ,
This wonderful innovative book explores how migration affects rural households in Central China as farmers deal with the predicament of needing to both earn money in the cities and maintain their rice fields in the village. [...] All Kaufmann's arguments are grounded in wider literatures on sociotechnical studies, the anthropology of agriculture, and migration studies.- Rachel Murphy, University of Oxford, China Information 36 (I) (2022),
Meticulously researched, the book brings together labour migration, economic transformation and agricultural knowledge transmission. With solid empirical details and innovative angle, the book makes rare contributions to understanding socioeconomic changes in China and beyond.- Biao Xiang, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, and Director of Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology,
Kaufmann's wonderful study of China's migrant worlds is a must-read for anyone interested in the multiple material skills and resources that underprivileged rural populations marshal in their quest for the good life.- Francesca Bray, Edinburgh University,
[...] an immensely crucial contribution in the field of anthropology of Chinese agriculture as well in the field of migration studies since it decentres the classical depiction of Chinese smallholders: [...] Kaufmann shows that these rural communities actively make choices built on a repertoire of skilled practices that are rooted in the socio-technical ground of wet rice cultivation., - Rebekka Sutter, Ethnographic Museum Zurich,
[...] a compelling interpretation land-use practices and migration patterns that goes beyond dichotomies of modern vs. backward farming and narrow economic explanations. [...] With thoughtful attention to those who live in the midst of its predicaments, Kaufmann has offered a great example of how research can engage complex and dynamic change across the rural-urban divide., - Jelena Grosse-Bley, Humboldt-University of Berlin, and Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, East Asian Science, Technology and Society
