Yao Lu (Columbia University)

Massive rural-urban migration and growing collective resistance are two profound transformations in China. How are these two phenomena connected? Drawing on several data sources, the speaker studies the countervailing effects of migration on collective action in rural China. She finds that migration acts as a vehicle of political diffusion but at the same time undermines the social foundation of collective action. As a result, the role of migration differs by the form and scale of collective action and is conditioned by local social institutions. The role of migration can be understood in the context of distinct institutional arrangements in China, which were originally engineered to disenfranchise rural-origin people but which instead have inadvertently politicized migrants and peasants alike.