Peasants Or Citizens: A Study Of Peasant Workers' Adaptation To City In The Process Of Modernization

It is a national economic growth and unavoidable course of social modernized development that peasants gather to the city and as a result the transition of mode of production and life style from the countryside to the city has been completed. Began with the early 1980s, the undertaking of reform and opening-up of our country entered a brand-new developing stage. Since then, the industrialization urbanization process of the Chinese society rapidly opened the prelude of its development. Accompanied with this historical process, there was the largest population migration in scaled since the dawn of human civilization on the Chinese territory, with hundreds of millions of surplus rural labor forces migrating to the city. After more than 20 years'migration, the peasants who entered the city had already formed a huge special group in the social structure and thus were generally called peasant workers. The peasants for one whole can not get back to the countryside but work and live in the city and thus become a part of the city, which will be an irreversible course in the socialist modernization drive of our country and the key to realize the goal of the overall well-to-do level in our country as well. The course of the urbanization, it is not merely a process that witnesses the gathering of population to the city, but at the same time a process that witnesses the realization of their own roles, the transitions of their life style and values, the adaptation to urban life, and the modernization of human beings. Then, how to help peasant workers to adapt to the city life in three aspects—aspects of economy, society, and psychology—and how peasant workers become city dwellers have arisen as problems that must be solved during the process of modernization in our country. Therefore, it has both theoretical and realistic significance to take the topic of adaptation of peasant workers to the city into consideration. Besides the introduction and conclusion, the present thesis consists of four parts. In the introduction, the present author gives a brief and concise explanation on the significance of the present study and defines some key concepts involved in the present study. Meanwhile, in order to make clear the purpose and the main idea of the present thesis, the present author illustrates the essentials problems to be solved and the general framework of analysis in this thesis. In part Ⅰ, the present author chooses a city in the west of our country—Nanning as her research objective and then investigates peasant workers'adaptation to the city in terms of economy, society, and psychology. The present author compares the case of Nanning to that of other cities in China and thus draws a conclusion. That is, peasant workers'adaptation to the city still is confined to the economic aspect and it is a long way to go to finish the adaptation in social and psychological aspect and it requires great efforts. In part Ⅱ, based on the analysis of peasant workers'adaptation to the city both in Nanning and other cities, the present author holds the view that peasant workers'adaptation to the city lags behind in nature, changes gradually, lasts for long period of time, consists of compatibility and manifests differences. Moving among cities and experiencing life in the city are two indispensable factors in enabling peasant workers to acquire modernity and in promoting their city adaptation process. An unreconciled relation between peasant workers and city dwellers will affect the modernization process of our country In part Ⅲ, The present author analyzes the factors that impede peasant workers'adaptation to the city. The basic obstacle of the adaptation should be the current system of the household register. At the same time, individual factors caused by peasant workers themselves as well as the social factors should not be ignored. In Part Ⅳ, The present author puts forward the policy measures on advancing peasant workers'adaptation to the city. First, we need to realize the institutional idea of peasant workers'adaptation to the city: (1) Dispel the drawback of the system of the current household register and break the two-dimensional social structures between urban and rural areas to offer peasant workers just and fair national treatments; (2) Reform the mechanism of urban social organization to satisfy the peasant workers'demands in terms of joining organization; (3) Based on the idea of people first, the social management idea in the city should be implemented. Second, the recently applicable measures need to be pushed on: (1) to Improve the economic treatments of peasant workers to provide them material base; (2) Strengthen their education and training to improve their competitiveness in the city; (3) Strengthen the orientation of public opinion of the mass media to change the prejudice of the urban society to peasant workers. Conclusion: The present author makes a summary of the main viewpoints involved in the present thesis.