De integratie van stad en platteland in China

Samenvatting

Western sociologists have often equated the city with 'center' and the country with 'periphery.' at times, this dichotomy has been coupled with that of the elite and the masses. In the case of China, the city does not have the function of center in regard to change and innovation. In the '50's, Chinese development was largely based on the model of the USSR. Recently, however, the Chinese have differentiated, especially in the way that they have developed rural areas. Rather than large-scale mechanization, the trend has been towards the economical utilization of human labor. As a result, China has not experienced the mass migration of the rural poor to the cities. The country is being urbanized in certain respects and the traditional separation between city and country in terms of, for example, wages and attitudes, has been reduced or eliminated. Interaction between intellectuals on the one hand, and farmers and workers on the other, has been stimulated, reducing the elitist image of the city. In modern China, the rural areas are central rather than peripheral. P. Tiersma.