Rural Origins, City Lives
Roberta Zavoretti
A new understanding of rural-urban migration and inequality in contemporary China
Many of the millions of workers streaming in from rural China to jobs at urban factories soon find themselves in new kinds of poverty and oppression. Yet, their individual experiences are far more nuanced than popular narratives might suggest. Rural Origins, City Lives probes long-held assumptions about migrant workers in China. Drawing on fieldwork in Nanjing, Roberta Zavoretti argues that many rural-born urban-dwellers are—contrary to state policy and media portrayals—diverse in their employment, lifestyle, and aspirations. Working and living in the cities, such workers change China’s urban landscape, ... Read more
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About Roberta Zavoretti
Reviews for Rural Origins, City Lives
China Quarterly
"Succeeds in showing that the category ‘peasant worker’ is much more heterogeneous than official and popular discourses suggest."
Anthropology of Work Review
"Rural Origins, City Lives does what good ethnography should do: it ... Read more