scholarly journals Advertising Homeownership through Cultural Capitalism: Neoliberal Making of New Shanghai Middle-Class Dream

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Lei Ping
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Urban Citizenship ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cosmopolitan Citizenship ◽  
Market Promotion ◽  
Class Distinction

Private homeownership has increasingly become a kind of new obsession and a symbol of upward mobility among the emerging middle class in post-Mao Chinese society. This essay studies the neoliberal making of the new Shanghai middle-class dream by exploring how this dream is invented and imagined through the pursuit of cosmopolitan citizenship, socio-spatial class distinction, and tiered lifestyles. It analyzes and problematizes the enduring charm of Shanghai as a global “city of magic” continues to attract those who aspire to eventually own a piece of property and display cultural capital of this highly unaffordable neoliberal city. Through a series of distinct case studies of recent real estate advertisement, interior design philosophy, and signature furniture stores and architecture magazines whose storytelling aesthetics are middle-class-inspired and focused, the essay critiques the way in which private homeownership is engineered, advertised, and made as one of the key prerequisites for the new Shanghainese (xin Shanghairen) to become middle class in the past two decades. It argues that the making of the new Shanghai middle-class dream is problematically preconditioned by a type of state-market promotion and advertisement of private homeownership and urban citizenship that ultimately synchronizes with the state-capitalist, neoliberal making of a moderately prosperous (xiaokang) society where class distinctions have revived to dominate the social, cultural, and economic discourses of a bourgeois Shanghai in the age of global capitalism.

Moral Order in the Post-Socialist Chinese City

2019 ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Fulong Wu ◽  
Zheng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Rural Migrants ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Chicago School Of Sociology

The seminal works by Park and the Chicago school of sociology are of great value for studying a rapidly urbanising China characterised by the decline of the formerly socialist structure and the increasing commodification of services and housing. Their assertion that the industrial organisation of cities has substituted primary and neighbourhood relations with secondary relations characterised by anonymity and utilitarianism also resonates with the rising middle-class population in China. However, our chapter contends that certain population groups have not followed the trajectory of change described by Park but instead continue to rely on primary and local social relations due to interventions of the Chinese state. Our argument is supported by a discussion on the varying social relations in Chinese urban neighbourhoods and specifically on the social life of rural migrants in the urban Chinese society.

In Defence of Sustho Sanskriti (Healthy Culture): Understanding Bengali Middle Classness in Neoliberal India

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
Shaoni Shabnam
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Group ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Sector Employees ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Service Sectors ◽  
Mobile Segment ◽  
Neoliberal India ◽  
Class Distinction

The ‘new middle class’, often identified as an upwardly mobile segment, primarily employed in the growing private service sectors, such as the information technology, and supposedly, representative of the changing lifestyles and consumption patterns of the Indian middle class, has stolen much of the limelight of the contemporary popular as well as scholarly discourses on the Indian middle class. 2 2   This article draws upon from the fieldwork conducted as part of my PhD work completed in 2016. An earlier version of the paper was presented at the international seminar on ‘The Middle Class in World Society’ held at ISEC (Institute of Social and Economic Change), Bangalore, India on 16th and 17th December, 2016. This article, on the other hand, takes up a different social group located in West Bengal, having a close relationship with the state, often described as the ‘old middle class’/‘Nehruvian middle class’ in the postcolonial context, the respondents being predominantly public sector employees and academicians. By taking up the register of sanskriti (culture), the article argues that it is fundamentally through forging continuity from the past that this historically dominant social group is engaged in the construction of Bengali middle classness. Through an analysis of class and its relation to cultural distinctiveness, the article shows that the specific way in which this relation plays out in case of the respondents in my study and argues that any theoretical attempt to understand the complex relationship between class distinction and the question of taste needs to be grounded within narrowly defined contextualised specificities.

文 献 回 顾: 中 国 社 工 教 育 发 展 十 个 重 要 课 题 的 批 判 分 析

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (01) ◽  
pp. 41-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
继 同 刘
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Education Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Education In China ◽  
The Ideal

中 国 内 地 社 会 工 作 教 育 的 恢 复 和 发 展 已 走 过 年 辉 煌 历 程， 取 得 令 人 注 目 的 成 就。 在 经 济 市 场 化 和 福 利 社 会 化 处 境 下， 中 国 内 地 社 会 工 作 教 育 发 展 面 临 诸 多 争 论 议 题 和 两 难 选 择。 本 文 从 文 献 回 顾 角 度， 明 确 提 出 中 国 内 地 社 会 工 作 教 育 发 展 的 十 个 重 要 课 题， 简 要 回 顾 每 个 重 要 课 题 的 历 史 发 展， 客 观 描 述 各 种 重 要 课 题 中 的 争 论 议 题， 全 面 分 析 不 同 重 要 课 题 面 临 的 两 难 选 择， 理 论 概 括 中 国 社 会 工 作 教 育 发 展 基 本 关 系 的 理 想 类 型。 本 文 的 主 要 结 论 是， 中 国 社 会 工 作 教 育 应 更 为 及 时 有 效 地 回 应 独 特 的 中 国 社 会 环 境 和 变 迁 的 社 会 需 要， 建 立 与 政 府 决 策 部 门、 正 规 社 会 福 利 服 务 机 构 和 非 政 府 组 织 之 间 的 制 度 性 伙 伴 关 系。 The revival and development of the social work education in China underwent a brilliant process and attained evident achievements in the past 20 years. In the contextual moves towards market orientation and welfare towards socialisation, the social work education faces debatable issues and dilemmas. In terms of literature review, the article clearly shows ten critical issues on the social work education development in China, briefly review their historical development, objectively describes all kinds of the debatable issues about them, comprehensively analyses the dilemmas in dealing with them and theoretically summarises the ideal category for them. The conclusion of the article is that the social work education in China must timely and effectively respond to the special environments and varying needs of Chinese society and establish the partnership with the policy-making governmental departments, official welfare organisations and NGO in Chinese society.

The Cultural Imaginary of “Middle Society” in Early Republican Shanghai

Modern China ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 620-651
Author(s):  
Peijie Mao
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Urban Modernity ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Imaginary ◽  
The Social ◽  
Early Republican ◽  
Industrial Fiction

This article explores the cultural imaginary of “middle society” in China through popular writings of the early twentieth century. It pays particular attention to popular print media in early Republican Shanghai, which played a central role in constructing a middle-class cultural identity by offering new sources for imagination and for the configuration of urban modernity. I suggest that the popular imagination of the Chinese middle class can be traced back to the discourse of “middle society,” “utopian stories,” and “industrial fiction” in the 1910s and 1920s. This imaginary of middle society was defined and supported by a broad range of cultural expressions in popular media. It revealed both the social anxiety and tensions brought about by the socioeconomic transformations in early twentieth-century China and the middle-class “cultural dreams” of Chinese society and modern life.

The roots of Trumpism

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 100-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Post
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Social Origins ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social

This essay examines the social origins of the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, and assess the possible direction of his presidency. Riding the wave of middle class radicalism that began with the Tea Party insurgency, Trump’s nomination temporarily disrupted the dominance of capitalists over the Republican Party. Despite his economic nationalist rhetoric, Trump will be unable to break in practice with the neo-liberal consensus of the past forty years.

The Icon Project

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Sklair
Keyword(s):  
Global Capitalism ◽  
Shopping Malls ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Capitalist Control

In the last quarter century, a new form of iconic architecture has appeared throughout the world's major cities. Typically designed by globe-trotting "starchitects" or by a few large transnational architectural firms, these projects are almost always funded by the private sector in the service of private interests. Whereas in the past monumental architecture often had a strong public component, the urban ziggurats of today are emblems and conduits of capitalist globalization. In The Icon Project, Leslie Sklair focuses on ways in which capitalist globalization is produced and represented all over the world, especially in globalizing cities. Sklair traces how the iconic buildings of our era-elaborate shopping malls, spectacular museums, and vast urban megaprojects--constitute the triumphal "Icon Project" of contemporary global capitalism, promoting increasing inequality and hyperconsumerism. Two of the most significant strains of iconic architecture--unique icons recognized as works of art, designed by the likes of Gehry, Foster, Koolhaas, and Hadid, as well as successful, derivative icons that copy elements of the starchitects' work--speak to the centrality of hyperconsumerism within contemporary capitalism. Along with explaining how the architecture industry organizes the social production and marketing of iconic structures, he also shows how corporations increasingly dominate the built environment and promote the trend towards globalizing, consumerist cities. The Icon Project, Sklair argues, is a weapon in the struggle to solidify capitalist hegemony as well as reinforce transnational capitalist control of where we live, what we consume, and how we think.

The Illam and Its Dispersion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ester Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Political History ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Material Phenomenology ◽  
The Way

Chapter four examines Nambudiri houses and the place they hold in the material phenomenology of kinship memories. Houses are understood here not only as ‘private domestic’ places but as domains where families’ engagement with political history is expressed, visualiszd (or hidden) in internal spatial dispositions, in the presentation of objects, in the daily routine, and in consumption practices. Indeed, houses are conceived as sites where kinship is ‘made’ by either reproducing the past, or by searching a distance from it. The social and symbolic significance of past Illams architecture (Nambudiri ancestral houses) is contrasted with the meanings ascribed to present middle-class dwellings and to the way people choose to inhabit the latter. The relation between gender, class mobility, and kinship will be developed by comparing middle-class Nambudiri men and women narratives.

From a “pornographic” book to a classic

Babel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 671-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ge Bai
Keyword(s):  
Social Activity ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Translation Product ◽  
Source Text ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Target Readership ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article aims to investigate the relationship between paratexts and the translation product with a case study of Lolita translations in China. Since Lolita has been one of the most frequently retranslated literary works in China over the past three decades, it can serve as a bellwether of the changes that have taken place in the translation field as well as those in the social, cultural and historical context. Therefore, a comparative study of the paratextual elements of Lolita translations acts as a reflection of the negotiations between the translation activity and the changing socio-political context. The analysis of paratexts locates translation as a social activity in which many agents are involved other than simply the translator and the source text. Through their organic integration with the translation products, the paratextual elements, functioning as genre indicators, work to promote the translation while potentially predicting its target readership. In the translation and retranslation of the same source text, a discussion of the paratexts may provide new insights into understanding the relationship between translations and retranslations as well as the evolution of the translation field in relation to Chinese society.

Aboriginal Pre-Pre-School

1975 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-33
Author(s):  
Lynda Leidig
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Social Club ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Come ◽  
Aboriginal Children

The Aboriginal Social Club of Port Augusta has been operating a pre-pre-school for Aboriginal children for the past six months or more. The idea behind this venture was to enable Aboriginal children between the ages of 2½ to 4 years to come together in a playgroup situation where they could experience the social contacts and educational experiences which many middle-class children already experience in the home. Such experiences prepare the children for kindergarten which they attend between the ages of 4 and 5 years.

scholarly journals From the ‘What’ and ‘How’ to the ‘Where’: Class Distinction as a Matter of Place

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Koehrsen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Cultural Consumption ◽  
The Social ◽  
Symbolic Boundary ◽  
Class Distinction

Research on the symbolic boundary work of upper- and middle-class actors has placed a greater emphasis on the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of cultural consumption than on the ‘where’. However, the spaces where actors move are important: the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of marking distinction vary according to national class cultures and cultural fields. This article focuses on the ‘where’ arguing that interaction settings shape actors’ boundary work. Based upon research on Argentinean Pentecostalism, the study shows that middle-class Pentecostals switch between distinction-marking and ‘omnivorous’ performances of Pentecostalism depending on the social permeability of the spaces where they move. These insights suggest that the contextual conditions in which actors present themselves as ‘omnivores’ or ‘snobs’ deserve more attention.

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