Lin, Xiaodong (2010). Rural men in urban China: masculinity and identity formation of male peasant workers. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
|
Lin10PhD.pdf
Download (2MB) |
Abstract
This thesis explores male peasant workers’ identity formation in contemporary post-Mao China. It is a qualitative study of 28 male peasant workers. Adopting an interpretivist perspective, this thesis uses a multi-method approach, including life histories, ethnography and discourse analysis. A primary purpose is to address the absence of male peasant workers from the literature on gender and migration as a gendered category and the reductive public representation of them through government and media images. In response, the thesis argues for the need to address the men’s self-representation in the construction of their dislocated masculine identities. There is a specific focus on their gendered experiences within the family and the workplace. The thesis examines the interconnections between gender, class and other social categories. A key argument is that the men’s narratives serve to challenge the assumptions of elite commentators that the rural men’s low status is a result of their continuing to occupy a traditional cultural habitus and thus failing to take up a modern urban identity and lifestyle. Such a position assumes that tradition and modernity exist in an oppositional logic, with the former being displaced by the latter. In contrast, my empirical work clearly illustrates a more complex picture. The male peasant workers deploy traditional cultural practices, such as xiao (dao) (filial piety), as a resource to develop ‘modern’ masculine identities as urban workers.
Type of Work: | Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Award Type: | Doctorates > Ph.D. | ||||||
Supervisor(s): |
|
||||||
Licence: | |||||||
College/Faculty: | Colleges (2008 onwards) > College of Social Sciences | ||||||
School or Department: | Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology | ||||||
Funders: | None/not applicable | ||||||
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
||||||
URI: | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/1082 |
Actions
Request a Correction | |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year