Identity Building and Communal Resistance against Landgrabs in Wukan Village, China

• Autores: Shenjing He, Desheng Xue
• Localización: Current anthropology: A world journal of the sciences of man, ISSN 0011-3204, Nº. Extra 9, 2014 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Crisis, value, and hope: rethinking the economy), págs. 126-137
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Over the last two decades, rapid urban expansion building on landgrabs has become ubiquitous in China. The pursuit of urban-centered economic growth has created crises of land deprivation and rural identity in Chinese rural society. Land-related protests have become the focal point of movements for the protection of Chinese farmers� rights. Drawing on ethnographic materials concerning a series of influential protests over landgrabs in Wukan village, this paper presents a critical rethinking of the economy and an examination of how the restoration of villagers� collective identity has led to communal resistance that has successfully reclaimed governing power and social order, sowing the seed of hope for a better life. A revitalized and reinvented clan system organized around extended kinship networks has played a critical role in reconstituting the collective identity of villagers. The Wukan events constitute the first steps in an ambitious project to turn around farmers� subordinate and vulnerable role within China�s relentless urbanization. In this process, the economy has been redefined so as to give greater importance to the livelihood and the well-being of the marginal groups.