Embeddedness dilemma and alternative commoditization of social economy in rural China: a case study

Abstract

Abstract This article identifies different aspects of the embeddedness dilemma in a rural social economy project in South China. The term ‘alternative commodification’ is proposed to summarize the practitioners’ strategy. This strategy highlighted social embeddedness of economic development, but on the other hand involved the village deeper into the commodification process. Participants of the project only focused on newly emerged economic opportunities, with little concern of the embeddedness goal. Based on social transformation theory of Wright, the article also identifies two social reproduction mechanisms brought by marketization reform as structural barriers for realizing embeddedness goal: universal commodification and consumerism, both of which intensify villagers’ demand for cash income and ignorance of social dimensions of the project. Future research also needs to identify more barriers and methods to overcome obstacles in the process of developing social economy.