Social Capital in the “New Socialist Countryside”: Guanxi, Community Solidarity, and Resistance Organization in Two Chinese Townships

Purpose: Social capital is a concept of duality referring to both resources in personal ties and community solidarity (Coleman, 1988). Researchers have long been interested in the connections between the two levels of the concept and inquiring how individual networks can be transformed into organization of collectivity (Jamal, 2007). The paper responds to these questions by examining two townships in contemporary rural China, where social life is still deeply embedded in personal ties (guanxi). However, transformation to community social capital happens in T Township, where organized protests of villagers pressure local governments to respond to their requests, but not in W Township, where collective action is largely unseen. The analyses aim at discovering the mechanisms leading to the variances and scrutinizing the complexity of social capital in the Chinese countryside.

Methods: Ten-month ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in the two townships in 2006-2009 and qualitative data of tie practices and resistance organization were gathered through three ways: participant observation, in-depth interviews with villagers and local cadres (59 interviews in W Township and 43 in T Township), and previous meeting minutes. The data were synthesized to answer how different practices of networking occur in different local contexts, and how personal ties influence organization of resistance in rural China.

Results: Differences in local mobilization of resistance can be explained by differences in the modes of political economy in each township. In W Township, economic development builds upon local rural entrepreneurship and a highly visible endogenous class society; while in T Township, urban capital and rural governments deprive villagers of local resources and compel them to become migrant workers. In the different emergent socioeconomic orders, village cadres, as major organizers of rural communities, and villagers reconfigure and redefine their roles, agendas, and contents of exchange in their everyday tie practices. Their strategic networking through personal ties shapes the capability of their communities to mobilize resources and organize collective action.

Socialist governmental structure is well kept in W Township and the vertical tie with village cadres is the vital relationship for survival for common villagers. To exchange for favors, they support village cadres with respect and restrain themselves from participating in organized resistance that would stain the career records of the cadres. In T Township, villagers, as well as village cadres, depend on the horizontal ties in their community to survive in the anarchist villages and in the cities where they now work. Through their personal networks, the cadres lead the villagers to transcend persisting boundaries in the rural society, and endeavor to collectively petition and protest to authorities against corrupted local officials and for social justice.

Implications: Grassroots contexts and contents of network exchanges are crucial dimensions to explore for better understandings of the impacts of personal ties on community mobilization and the multi-directional relationships between the two levels of social capital. Service organizations active in rural China thus need to build community programs into the social and political dynamics in different local contexts to achieve effectiveness and goals of social change.