The Urbanization of People: The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City

隨著中國數百萬農村人口被歡迎進入大城市作為廉價勞動力的來源，地方政府卻使用各種工具來限制他們獲得正式公民身分，形成既利用又排除的政策效果，以達到所謂及時回應（Just-in-time）的城鎮化機制。

本書提出的問題意識為：國家如何管理城市的流動人口？人民如何被城鎮化？其社會後果為何？作者打破傳統，把學校當成窗口，觀察更廣泛的城鎮化過程，並透過民族誌研究及上百次訪談農民工子弟學校的教職員與家長，探討中國如北京等特大城市一方面向精英階層提供他們不一定需要的優質公共服務；另一方面利用落戶、住房、勞動、學籍等政策，讓缺乏資源的低端家庭陷入規定朝令夕改的不安、在城鄉之間不斷遷移，和不平等的教育機會。備受剝削的中國農民工所面對的生命政治控制顯然更暴力也更嚴厲。

中研院社會所研究員林宗弘｜專文推薦


Amid a vast influx of rural migrants into urban areas, China has allowed cities wide latitude in providing education and other social services. While millions of people have been welcomed into the megacities as a source of cheap labor, local governments have used various tools to limit their access to full citizenship.

The Urbanization of People reveals how cities in China have granted public goods to the privileged while condemning poor and working-class migrants to insecurity, constant mobility, and degraded educational opportunities. Using the school as a lens on urban life, Eli Friedman investigates how the state manages flows of people into the city. He demonstrates that urban governments are providing quality public education to those who need it least: school admissions for nonlocals heavily favor families with high levels of economic and cultural capital. Those deemed not useful are left to enroll their children in precarious resource-starved private schools that sometimes are subjected to forced demolition. Over time, these populations are shunted away to smaller locales with inferior public services.

Based on extensive ethnographic research and hundreds of in-depth interviews, this interdisciplinary book details the policy framework that produces unequal outcomes as well as providing a fine-grained account of the life experiences of people drawn into the cities as workers but excluded as full citizens.