Although China is ahead of schedule in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universalizing nine-year basic education across the country by 2015, access to school remains problematic, as evidenced by a persistent school dropout problem, especially in its hidden forms and in poor and rural areas. Despite a wide range of literature on the phenomenon of school dropout globally, there is a dearth of empirically sound and theoretically motivated research that might offer an understanding of school dropout in terms of education quality. In response to these problems, the main question addressed in this thesis has to do with the role of education quality in children’s dropping out of school. The central thesis proposed is that the problem of school dropout and education quality in poor, rural China stems from the alienating nature of the school system. The methods adopted to answer these questions include a critical ethnography of four cases of dropout, each of which reflects on the assumptions associated with a particular cause of dropout or factor contributing to school access – namely, family poverty, illiterate parents, student attributes and their willingness to study, and the quality and distribution of educational resources. The thesis also offers a critical review of the theoretical approaches frequently used to conceptualize education quality, in relation to the insights gained from the case studies. The study is based on interviews with 112 informants and observations made during three months of fieldwork in China’s Yunnan and Guangdong provinces between 2009 and 2010. The case studies challenge the common assumptions made about school dropout, which are also leading theoretical approaches used to conceptualize education quality. The human capital approach, with its primary focus on the costs and benefits of schooling and its assumption of schooling as an investment, does not deal adequately with non-monetary concerns and the pressures on those living in poverty, and tends to ignore children who have different perceptions of schooling. A simple application of the critical approach tends to focus on structural causation and to overlook the agency of the child. While the systems approach focuses on the implementation and evaluation of education quality, it appears not to say enough about the ends of education. In the distribution of resources, both the utility-based and resource-based approaches tend to understate the importance of the individual’s socio-economic status. These insights also reveal the alienating nature of an educational system in an increasingly market-oriented economy. The alienating school does not respect the students’ individual interests, habits, socio-economic background, aspirations, etc. and is primarily concerned with their success and failure (or dropout) insofar as they affect the evaluation of “quality” or the effectiveness of the bureaucratic system. Students who are marginalized and cannot easily adjust, perhaps due to their disadvantaged socio-economic, cultural and geographic location, tend to be pushed out of school. The study calls for a fundamental change of attitudes in educational development and policy making and a redefinition of school failure as a consequence not so much of the child’s unwillingness to study, but of his inability to perform well. As a school dropout explained his decision to drop out: “It’s not that I didn’t want to study: I just couldn’t study well.” / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The thesis examines three issues related to Chinese rural households’ well-being and poverty status over the period of 1989-2006. Each of them corresponds to a substantive chapter (Chapter 3-5). Chapter 1 introduces the stages of poverty reduction in rural China following the reforms that started in 1978 and discusses some problems related to further poverty reduction and increases in welfare. Chapter 2 provides a general description of the data set used in the substantive chapters. It includes a discussion of the construction of the panel and the justification of the construction and use of the key economic variables. It also uses this panel to provide some preliminary explorations on households’ poverty status and inequality. Chapter 3 examines the welfare loss brought about by the increasing uncertainty attached to households’ consumption flows. Along with significant economic growth over more than three decades, rural households’ livelihood has become more uncertain in terms of greater volatility and inequality in their consumption. Our estimate is that households’ welfare would have risen up by approximately one third if there were no such uncertainties. Farmers and the chronically poor appear to suffer most among all sub-groups from the welfare loss associated with this uncertainty. Chapter 4 extends the existing literature on poverty in rural China from a perspective of households’ agricultural asset holdings. The analysis finds multiple equilibria in asset dynamics. In the presence of limited insurance, households’ exposure to various shocks and risk forces them to engage in conservative livelihood strategies: they may prefer low-risk low-return production to more profitable but riskier investment in asset accumulation. As a result, some households may be trapped into lower incomes in the long-term. Based on the findings in Chapter 4, Chapter 5 empirically identifies the dynamic asset threshold. It categorises households into either the downward or upward mobility group in the long-term. Then, this chapter measures to what extent falling below this asset threshold may affect households’ probabilities of being poor. Both static and dynamic estimates suggest that insufficient asset holdings substantially increase the chances of falling into poverty. Chapter 6 summarises policy implications indicated by the empirical analyses in three substantive chapters. Overall, education, health insurance and off-farm employment appear to be the key factors if there is to be a further improvement in Chinese rural households’ welfare and reduction in poverty.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction Development

China has a long history of charitable practices. However, in the first four decades since the Communist Party of China (CPC) came into power in 1949, charitable practices experienced little development under a planned economy and collectivist ideology. It was not until 1989 that the state began to promote state-led charity on a national scale with the iconic Hope Project which was in response to market transformations and social turbulences. Over the past decade, the Chinese charity sector has experienced rapid development, with a growing number of innovative charitable practices delivered by grassroots organisations. This research uses the ‘Shanghai I-Fly Project for Training Rural Teachers’ case study to investigate how these grassroots charitable practices for rural education are emerging in China nowadays, as well as how they reshape individual-society-state relations by launching innovative charitable projects for rural education. This research combines qualitative research methods, including secondary literature review, policy analysis, participant observations, semi-structured interviews and self-administered questionnaires. The fieldwork research was conducted during three consecutive periods: between May and October 2012, January and August 2013, as well as December 2013 and February 2014 in three places, including Shanghai, Liming County and Lankang County. The research finds that there are three trends in the emerging charitable practices for rural education. First, charity spaces have shifted from rural to urban areas. Second, philanthropic targets have changed from rural students to rural teachers. Third, benevolent projects have shown increasing interest in promoting ‘soft’, instead of ‘hard’ aspects of rural education. Both the state and social elites have promoted these transformations. On the one hand, state policies for social organisations, charitable practices and rural education have exerted a large influence over various forms of philanthropy. On the other hand, local elites have been playing an active role in promoting innovative charitable practices in order to rebuild the social morality of the next generation and reproduce existing hierarchical structure in the non-profitable world. Emerging innovative benevolent acts seem to have been promoted for urban people more than rural participants. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

China has been experiencing a great transition from a socialist collective economy to a market economy since 1978. Before the transition started, the Communist Party had established a socialist collective system with very low levels of income and wealth inequality. With the deepening of the rural reform and the development of rural industry, a large number of people were lifted out of poverty. However, as the people's living standards are rising, disparities in income and wealth are also being accentuated. This thesis's main purpose is to study the extent and determinants of income and wealth inequality in rural China. Based on a sample survey data from Anhui and Sichuan provinces, the thesis answers the following five questions: 1. How much income and wealth inequality is there in rural China in 1994-1995? 2. How has inequality in rural China changed since the reform of 1978? 3. How do the components of income and wealth in China affect the income and wealth distributions? 4. What social and economic factors are most responsible for influencing income and wealth in rural China? 5. How much of the inequality in income and wealth can be accounted for by the factors that predict income and wealth? The main findings of the study are, first, rural income inequality was low in the two provinces in 1994-1995 and wealth inequality was higher than income inequality. Second, in the industrialized Sichuan province, nonagricultural income made a big contribution to income inequality, while in the agricultural Anhui province, agricultural income played an important role in increasing income inequality. Third, education, good land, sufficient labor, and better communication resources are positively related to income and wealth. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

More than two years ago the cooperative training program between the United States Department of State and the Extension Service of the United States Department of Agriculture for Latin-American students on Extension work aroused the interest of Dr. P.W. Tsou, Resident Representative in the United States of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Upon the request of Dr. Tsou, Director M. L. Wilson of the United States Extension Service extended this cooperative training program to Chinese students. It was agreed that Dr. Tsou should select a small group of Chinese students whose expenses were to be paid either by the State Department of the United States or by the Chinese Government. The Division of the Field Studies and Training of the Extension Service of the United States Department of Agriculture was to be responsible for working out the training program with the trainees. The Chinese students selected were those who had come to the United States before December 8, 1941, who had some practical experience connected with rural life in China, were interested in rural living and planned to return to China to work with rural people. The author was chosen as one of the trainees, her financial support being supplied by the United States Department of State from the President's emergency fund during the war period. The training program on Extension work for foreign students was under the auspices of the Division of Field Studies and Training in the United States Department of Agriculture. It consisted of three parts. The preliminary training was in the Federal Extension Office at Washington, D.C. Before beginning the fieldwork the author, with other foreign students, was given two months of general training in the Federal Extension Office under the supervision of Dr. Fred P. Frutchey, in charge of the Foreign Student Program. During this two month period the author spent about one fourth of the time in classes in which general information on Extension organization, the policy and administration of Extension Service, the methods of teaching, and the general set-up of the Federal Extension System were discussed. The second fourth of the time was spent in conferences with subject-matter specialists of the Federal Extension Staff on methods and plans of work, and materials for the teaching of the various subject-matter fields. The rest of the time was spent with the Parent Education Specialist discussing and studying the programs and plans for Parent Education work in the United States, and becoming acquainted with the history and development of the Extension System in the United States, as well as in reading the reports of state and county Extension workers. A period of seven months was spent in six states divided as follows: two months each in Alabama, Iowa and New York, and one month in the three states Illinois, Ohio, and Vermont. In each of these six states the investigator was under the guidance of either the State Home Demonstration Leader or the District supervisors. The activities at the State Extension Office were planned: 1. To acquaint the investigator with Extension personnel at the State Office and the extension program in the State, its development and history. Special attention was given to the home demonstration work and the training of workers for this field. 2. To arrange conferences with the district supervisors, State 4-H Club Leaders, subject-matter specialists, and the Extension editor or publicity personnel. 3. To arrange field trips with district supervisors and subject-matter specialists, especially those dealing with "Family Life Education" as well as "Foods and Nutrition." Opportunities to observe their work with the county home agents and the local leaders were provided. 4. To arrange visits to the Home Economics Department of the Land-Grant College in the respective states in order to learn its relationship with the Extension Service in training home agents and rendering special types of service. 5. To acquaint the investigator with the work of the Experiment Station and its relationship to the Extension Service. 6. To provide opportunities to read the Extension bulletins and reports of agents and specialists. In each state certain counties were selected for special study. All counties selected had outstanding extension programs directed by experienced county agents. In each county the activities of the investigator were varied, but on the whole she: 1. Studied the daily activities of the county agents and observed their methods of working and teaching among rural people, and their relationships with both farm people and their co-workers in the office. 2. Discussed with county agents the organization, functions, and history of county Extension work, agricultural situations of the county, their methods of working with rural people, 4-H Club and older youth programs in the county, methods of developing and using volunteer leaders, development of their particular county Extension programs and plans of work, ways and means of office management, their relationships with other agencies in the county, their problems and the solutions for them, methods of training new agents and local leaders, and their objectives of Extension work. 3. Attended all the meetings held and observed the agents in their work. 4. Visited result demonstrations, 4-H Club projects, farms and homes, as well as meetings held by local leaders and other agencies in the counties. 5. Read and studied the circular letters, news stories, radio talks, reports and records written by county agents. The fourth part of this training program was the taking of a two months' short course in Extension Education in the Federal Extension Office at Washington, D.C. The methods used for study were listening, observing, asking questions, reading, discussing, and "learning by doing" under the instruction of subject-matter specialists and other members of the Extension Staff. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning