This project aims to develop a theory of precarity and gender in post-socialist China. The rapid reforms in China have resulted in increased inequalities that are articulated along the lines of class and gender. Drawing on the recent literatures on the increasing precarity of everyday life in neoliberal societies, this project probes into the similarities as well as differences in an authoritarian society, in which the state penetrates deeply into the everyday lives of its citizenry.

Accordingly, the precarity-project research objectives are:

• To analyse the intersection of class and gender in Shanghai, focusing on single migrant women navigating between aspirations and marginalisation;
• To analyse the multiple ways in which young migrant women experience, navigate and claim the city;
• To analyse their representation in popular culture.

Project leader / PI 3: Prof. Dr Jeroen de Kloet
Postdoctoral researcher: Dr Yiu Fai CHOW
PhD candidate: Penn IP

Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies (ACGS)
Faculty of Humanities
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands