An Investigation Into Social Hierarchies In The Outskirts Villages At The Backdrop Of Urbanization

ABSTRACT: In the process of urbanization, a lot of villages have been gradually annexed to cities, but the administrative system of their communities and ways of people managing have not been totally adapted into the urban system. As a result, there emerge particular transitional communities—outskirts villages, which are neither outskirts of cities nor villages in traditional sense. Outskirts villages are not a fleeting phenomenon in the process of China's economy development but a lasting community type together with the economic and social development. In the process of urbanization, the social members of outskirts villages have changed and this has influenced the stability and development of the society. Therefore, the study of social stratification in the outskirts villages can be of academic and practical significance. Given this, the thesis conducts an empirical study of professional differentiation in outskirts villages by taking three of them in Zhejiang as examples.This thesis is divided into six parts:Part One reviews relevant literatures on social stratification in villages and social differentiation in outskirts villages. We find that existent research on social stratification in outskirts villages is either macroscopic theorizations or micro case studies. They cannot show a real picture of the social differentiation among the social members in outskirts villages. We argue that it is necessary to make a typological analysis of the differentiation among the social members in the outskirts villages. In this part, we also discuss the significance of this research, research design and methodology.In Part Two, I we first analyze the significance of this research and then focus on the selection and design of methodology and index system.Part Three analyzes the particular pattern of differentiation among farmers as a...