Structural Restrictions And Individual Practice On The Small City Integration Of The Farmer Workers

With the fast development of Chinese economy,there has been an increasing conflict between those farmer workers' desire to live in the city and the receptivity of those first-tier cities.According to the actual status of Wan Village,most of those farmer workers who entered the urban area for employment in the middle 1990 s have given up the opportunities to live in the city.They have returned to the third-tier cities or counties where their resident domicile is registered.It should be noted that the first-generation farmer workers are subjects with self-awareness and mobility.They have actively engaged in the urbanization in practice.After returning to small-and-medium cities from the major cities,they can switch to diverse forms of employment,formal or informal,after accumulating wealth in the city.As a result,they can accommodate to the urban life.The author has referred to it as the phenomenon of the first-generation farmer workers returning to the small-and-medium cities.Since it represents the active exploration of the first-generation farmer workers in the process of urbanization,it requires the researcher to investigate the external structural factors and internal subjective factors as well as the interaction between them.What's more,further efforts should be made to discuss how the first-generation farmer workers accommodate to the urban life by adapting to the external society and utilizing the internal subjective factors.Based on the materials regarding cases of those citizens(the first-generation farmer workers whose native place is Wan Village,Z Town of D County)returning to the small-and-medium cities,this paper is intended to use the Structuration Theory to do research on the first-generation farmer workers' urban entry,employment or independent business,the acquisition of public services as well as cultural connection.More importantly,it will reveal the duality of external structure and subjective practice for those farmer workers.It is found that the dissimilarity between different types of urban distribution in terms of institutional arrangement,economic environment and public opinion can provide the regional choice of living space for the first-generation farmer workers.Based on the economic capital,human resource capital,social capital and urban adaptability,this paper will offer the feasible path for the reflection and accommodating urban life.Although the external structure has caused some constraint on the urban integration of those first-generation farmer workers,it also provides the space for subjective practice.The action of the subject is confined by the external structure,thus maintaining the structure.It has also reconstructed the external structure through the initiative of the subject.