Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rural migrant workers and periods of structural change.

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Rural migrant workers and periods of structural change Sociology is interested in the distinction between individual free-will and socially-patterned ways of thinking; what is referred to as the structure-agency issue. This dissertation studies the relationship between social structure and individuals' consciousness contrasting two social theorists' (Bourdieu and Elias) theories about this society-individual relationship. This dissertation proposes that both theories have explanatory power but under different circumstances. The research site will allow the researcher to investigate how rural workers who move to urban settings start to think about things differently. This setting will allow the researcher to compare the two theories- one, Bourdieu, that sees individuals' thinking being determined by their social position; second, Elias' views of consciousness as formed in processes of people's interconnection and interactions. To investigate the competing theories, the researcher will conduct a fieldwork study of rural migrant workers in China and, through participant observation and interviews learn how their thinking changes in very different environments. This research contributes to integrating two sociological theories as well as addressing theoretical debates about structure and agency. It also contributes to broadening the contribution of sociology to other fields such as history. Two questions thus lead this dissertation project: 1) How does Bourdieu's and Elias's mechanisms respectively operate in different social situations? 2) How do the two mechanisms co-function to shape people's consciousness of social reality? Answer these questions allows investigation of the fundamental structure-agency relationship that is a core sociological concern. These theoretical inquiries are pursued through a fieldwork study of rural migrant workers in China who are appropriate cases for two reasons. First, they experience multiple dominations as a disadvantaged group in China making it fruitful to study their consciousness of their social situations. Second, as they undergo dramatic changes when migrating to become city workers, their complicated experiences offers a rich opportunity to empirically apply both Bourdieu's and Elias's models. The researcher will conduct one year of fieldwork in two factories in east China, including both participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect data on the migrant workers' consciousness formation in their daily work and life settings and to discuss how they are thinking about their structural situations, linking the responses more tightly to the theoretical models. The proposed research has the potential to advance scientific knowledge in at least three ways. First, it engages two important sociological theories in an effort to integrate them. Second, the research can make important contributions to the efforts at articulating the society-agency relationships that lie at the heart of sociology. Third, the work has the capacity to speak to literatures in disciplines outside of sociology (e.g., history) that are also concerned with relationships between structure and agency.