14th USIAS Fellows Seminar : Emergence of the individual in urban China

Pierre Miège, Fellow 2014, Beijing Normal University

China has been going through profound transformations since the late 1970s, especially with the dismantling of the “work unit system” which used to govern all aspects of the life of urbanites, leading to a reconfiguration in social norms and the emergence of the “individual”. More generally, younger generations are attempting to invent ways to reconcile norms that appear as contradictory, and to develop their own “self” in a context in which collectivized norms are weakened and the individualized subject is only emerging.

Pierre Miège is currently working on a project to deepen our understanding of the question of individualization which remains a new field of investigation in Chinese social sciences. During the seminar, he will present the progress of his work in this domain.