Evolving Paradigms in Chinese Rural Land Policy: Developmentalism, Welfarism, and Liberalism

Description

Burak Gürel, an associate professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Asian Studies at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey, will give a talk titled "Evolving Paradigms in Chinese Rural Land Policy: Developmentalism, Welfarism, and Liberalism" as part of the East Asian Studies Speakers Series.

His talk examines the policy debates on rural land tenure in China since the 1980s, delineating three primary perspectives. Developmentalism advocates maintaining robust government control over land for economic development. Welfarism underscores the role of rural land as social insurance and warns against the risks of land privatization. Liberalism promotes land privatization as a fundamental solution to problems of growth and equity. Although state-directed developmentalism has remained politically dominant, growing demands for land acquisition compensation from villagers have continually prompted an uneasy fusion of these views at the policy level.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology and the International Studies Program.