Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Proletarianization：Theoretical Explanation, Historical Experiences，and Its Enlightenments

Liu Jianzhou, Shanghai Administration Institute   

  1. Liu Jianzhou, Shanghai Administration Institute
  • Online:2012-03-20 Published:2012-03-20
  • Contact: Liu Jianzhou, Shanghai Administration Institute E-mail: jianzhouliu@sohu.com
  • About author:Liu Jianzhou, Shanghai Administration Institute
  • Supported by:

    The article is part of the research findings of the ordinary project subsided by Shanghai Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science. The project’s title is:Study on Migrant Workers’ Class Formation and Class Consciousness (2010BSH002

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Abstract:

It is widely agreed that proletarianization is a process during which laborers lose their control of means of production and have to sell their labor for survival. Proletarianization has influenced both individuals and society extensively and profoundly. It gives scholars a new perspective to examine societal changes as it is a pivotal process of the development of capitalism, a main theme of modernity, and the core of industrialization and modernization. Although massive proletarianization has become a history in developed countries, it is still underway in developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary to use this macroperspective of proletarianization to theoretically discuss the following issues: (1) examining and learning from the historical trajectories of proletarianization in the developed countries; (2) comparing the proletarianization in Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) with the proletarianization that took place in developed countries (especially those in Europe) in earlier eras to see their similarities and differences; and (3) interpreting and explaining the proletarianization in socialist countries (especially China) with this theoretical perspective and its related concepts. To deal with the aforementioned issues, the first step is to review and evaluate the classic works and studies on proletarianization. To serve this purpose, this paper analyzes the predicaments in the studies of proletarianization, introduces CharlesTilly’s definition of proletarianization and his analyticalframeworks, and then briefly reviews different patterns of proletarianization in Europe as well as in NICs, highlighting the profound significance of these historical experiences to the analysis of proletarianization in socialist countries. Finally, in order to address the important theoretical and realistic topic of “whether proletarianization exists in socialist countries,” the paperintroduces the research of IvanSzelenyi et al. and discusses the insights from their findings to the analysis of the class formation of migrant workers in China and theirproletarianization.

Key words: proletarianization ,   Charles Tilly , Newly Industrialized Countries , socialist countries , class formation