Communities and New Patterns of Stratification in a Chinese City

This research will make a substantial contribution to the understanding of social and political change in China by comparing five urban residential communities with substantially different social characteristics in the key northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. Through extensive interviews with residents, local officials and administrators, it aims at understanding: ways families and individuals gain access to resources within the framework of China's new social institutions; the effects of changing governance patterns on societal autonomy and on the capacity of the state and its national and local organs to govern society; and the effects of residential segregation on increasing inequality in Chinese urban society.