Rural-Urban Migration and Agro-Technological Change in Post-Reform China

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A01=Lena Kaufmann
agricultural deskilling
Author_Lena Kaufmann
Category=GTM
Category=JBFH
Category=JBSL
Category=JHB
china
community of practice
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ethnographic research
knowledge and skill
knowledge transmission
migrant-left-behind nexus
rice farming
rice farming migration strategies
rural livelihoods
rural-urban migration
technological adaptation

Product details

  • ISBN 9781041185673
  • Weight: 570g
  • Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 01 Dec 2025
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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How do rural Chinese households deal with the conflicting pressures of migrating into cities to work as well as staying at home to preserve their fields? This is particularly challenging for rice farmers, because paddy fields have to be cultivated continuously to retain their soil quality and value. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and written sources, Rural-Urban Migration and Agro-Technological Change in Post-Reform China describes farming households' strategic solutions to this predicament. It shows how, in light of rural-urban migration and agro-technological change, they manage to sustain both migration and farming. It innovatively conceives rural households as part of a larger farming community of practice that spans both staying and migrating household members and their material world. Focusing on one exemplary resource - paddy fields - it argues that socio-technical resources are key factors in understanding migration flows and migrant-home relations. Overall, this book provides rare insights into the rural side of migration and farmers' knowledge and agency.

Lena Kaufmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of History and an associate lecturer at the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, both at the University of Zurich. Trained as an anthropologist and sinologist, she spent nearly four years in China, researching migration in the city and countryside.

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