EASC Colloquium

The Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business (RCCPB) cordially invites you to attend a colloquium featuring Jean C. Oi (Ph.D., University of Michigan, and B.A., Indiana University), the William Haas Professor in Chinese Politics in the Department of Political Science and a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She will give a lecture entitled “New Challenges in Chinese Rural Governance,” on Friday, April 15, 4:30-6:00 pm, at the Georgian Room, 2^nd Floor, Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. 7^th Street, IU-Bloomington campus.

After 30 plus years of reform, the dramatic increase in markets and the restructuring of the economy from agriculture to industry has opened the door to new job opportunities for the rural population. However, development and reform have also created new problems. Large-scale migration out of villages has left some with only the old and the very young. The struggle over land pervades the countryside as the need for industrialization and development compete with agriculture. The leadership is at a crossroads and is experimenting with a new form of rural organization and governance—rural shechu—to handle the new challenges of governance in a demographically, economically, and politically changed countryside. Based on recent fieldwork, Dr. Oi will discuss the dilemmas facing the leadership as it considers whether and how to reorganize rural China.

Dr. Oi’s work focuses on comparative politics, with special expertise on Chinese political economy. She has published extensively on China’s rural politics and political economy. Currently, she is researching the politics of corporate restructuring, with a focus on the incentives and institutional constraints of state actors. She also continues her research on rural finance and local governance in China and has started a new project on the logic of administrative redistricting in the Chinese countryside.

Notice: Dr. Oi will also participate in a roundtable discussion related to her current research, 2:00-3:30 pm, in Woodburn 218. The roundtable will discuss Dr. Oi’s paper, “Shifting Fiscal Control to Limit Cadre Power in China’s Towns and Villages,” forthcoming in the China Quarterly (for a copy, please email Scott Kennedy at kennedys@indiana.edu). The session will be led by two of the Political Science Department’s graduate students, Qun Wang and Shuang Zhao, who will serve as the chair and commentator, respectively. Students and faculty are welcome to attend this event.

Her visit is co-sponsored by RCCPB and the East Asian Studies Center.

Please feel free to forward this announcement to others. These events are open to the public; no RSVP necessary.