The ordinary middle class in an ordinary community: the formation of the new middle class in China. ; CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

Based on an ethnographic study of a middle class community in Beijing, this research attempts to investigate the formation of a specific segment of China's middle class, namely, the white-collar employees and the new generation of private entrepreneurs in urban China. It will demonstrate how this segment of China's middle class deliberately differentiate themselves from other social groups through symbolized everyday domestic practices, and capture the latest development of domestic lifestyles of China's middle class. ; The economic reform in contemporary China has brought about transformations in its socio-economic and political environment. The implementation of a series of policies that changed the occupational structure, reinvented resources allocation mode, and increased the purchasing power of China's urban citizens has facilitated the emergence of a new social stratum. As this new middle stratum is still emerging and expanding, its composition is pluralistic. To describe the emerging affluent social classes, simply looking at economic indicators may not be adequate. Lifestyle factors have become important components in the shaping of China's new middle class. ; Using Bourdieu's theoretical schema, three inter-related analytical questions regarding to domestic life patterns of China's middle class will be addressed in this research: their aspirations of home, how this expected domestic life is protected through collective actions, and how a local system or a moral order of behavior is gradually formed through mundane and ordinary everyday interactions. A legally recognized and protected homeownership has become the bottom line, upon which the middle class continue to develop higher requirements to live comfortably and safely at home. From these everyday practices in the field of domestic life, we shall see how the emerging middle class in China is establishing a lifestyle, forming a shared social identity, and constructing social space in the social structure. ; Liu, Shuo. ; Adviser: Lui Tai Lok. ; Source: ...