Social economy in rural China : barriers, strategies, and agents for practice : two case studies

Abstract

Social economy burgeons as a discourse to tackle neo-liberalism not only around the world but also in China. A number of social organizations have launched social economy projects in rural China in order to rectify negative impacts brought by free market under neo-liberalism, such as enlarging income gap between rural and urban residents, aggravating environmental degradation, etc. While the concrete strategies for developing social economy vary among different projects, there are two major types of social economy practitioners: farmers’ organizations from within the community and social organizations from outside the community.

This thesis is an explorative study, aiming to explore the process of social economy practice in rural China and identify strategies that might overcome structural barriers imposed by the current social system. Three research questions are raised: (1) What are the structural barriers for social economy projects in rural China? (2) What strategies have social economy practitioners used and what kinds of strategies are helpful to overcome structural barriers? (3) What are the differences between internal-driven and external-driven social economy projects in rural China that lead to different strategies?

Adopting a case study approach, data collection is mainly through participant observation and interviews. Two cases of social economy practice in rural China are displayed. One is operated by X Association, a farmers’ organization from within the community, while the other is launched by Y Land, a social work organization from outside the community. This thesis describes both cases from six aspects, including “the forming of ideology”, strategies on “market”, “necessities”, “commons”, “surplus”, and “empowerment” dimensions.

Four barriers for developing social economy can be identified: the deprived self-sufficiency ability of rural community, the lack of negation power of social economy entity, competition from the mainstream market, and institutional arrangement of individual land use rights in China.

There are different strategy choices between X Association and Y Land, especially on the dimensions of “market” and “necessities”. While X Association has successfully overcome several barriers and enlarged its impact after adjusting its strategies, Y Land is still trapped in quite limited economic scale. Two theoretical models have been established to explain why “mainstream market strategy” of X Association is better to help the survival of social economy projects and how it is possible to enlarge the impact of social economy by establishing bartering system between communities. Meanwhile, some strategies used by X Association, including improving self-sufficiency ability of the community, establishing service system as new commons, and raising critical consciousness of people, are identified helpful not only for breaking through structural barriers, but also for preventing social economy from being assimilated into the mainstream.

Besides natural endowment of a community, difference between internal driven and external driven strategy in social economy projects is an important factor for strategy selection. With a budget constraint, internal driven projects like X Association tend to be more practice-based in selecting strategies. Meanwhile, familiarity with the local rural community also brings much convenience to promote social economy ideology.