Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2016, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (5): 131-154.

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State or Market: Preference to Market Transition Among Migrant Workers Under Urbanization

ZENG Diyang   

  1. Department of Sociology, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University
  • Online:2016-09-20 Published:2016-09-20
  • Supported by:

    The research was supported by the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Project (15YJC840044) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2015M571722).

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Abstract:

Research on China's market economy transition has more or less focused on its processes and outcomes, often neglecting people's subjective attitudes towards the change. Nevertheless, such attitudes constitute the basis upon which migrants make their choices and decisions in response to the ongoing urbanization process, and vice versa, their actions also affect the path and the future of Chinese marketization and urbanization. This study reaches several conclusions based on an analysis of the 2012 Tsinghua University Urban Survey. In comparison between local residents and migrants, there is a strong support among migrants towards the real estate property marketization as well as the overall market transition. Such marketization preferences become even stronger with the younger migrant cohorts, influenced by the generational differences in life experience. There is also a difference between city-to-city and rural-to-city migrants in their attitudes towards the market transition with the former much more in favor of than the later. These findings suggest that both structural and cognitive factors help constitute people's different attitudes towards the market transition. Concrete benefits and subjective perception together decide individual's preference over the dichotomy between state and market. The Chinese market transition is being proceeded under its political system and many market rules cannot be operated independently from political elements. Therefore, under the current large-scale urbanization, institutional advantage remains the key to access benefits. The gap between migrants and local residents is triggered, not by the market as it might be seen on the surface, but essentially by the state protection of the existing institutions. To change it, we need to abandon the household registration segregation.

Key words: migrant, urbanization, state, market transition preferences, market