Organizing Through Division and Exclusion

Fei-ling Wang is Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. He has published two earlier books, Institutions and Institutional Change in China: Premodernity and Modernization (1998), and From Family to Market: Labor Allocation in Contemporary China (1998).

"Readers will have no doubt, after reading this book, that China's Hukou system discriminates against the 70 percent of its population who just happen to be born in the rural areas."—Journal of Chinese Political Science "What makes this book indispensable for understanding Chinese state-building is its comprehensive analysis of the hukou (household registration) system, a little understood institution responsible for the rural-urban inequality in contemporary China. . . The book's excellent organization allows readers to select relevant chapters and circumvent potholes in the overarching narrative."—Choice "Organizing Through Division and Exclusion is a long-overdue work that will provide and excellent source of information on the ins and outs of Chinas registration system."—The China Journal "Wangs book is a major contribution to our understanding of a system that has largely escaped attention, particularly in its security aspect as a means of control over targeted people, because its operations are considered state secrets. . . . This work provides us with the most comprehensive account so far, and is an indispensable tool for specialists in contemporary China, while being completely accessible to the general public."—China Perspectives "As the first published comprehensive examination of China's hukou (household registration) system, Fei-Ling Wang's book has certainly made a significant contribution to helping us better understand China's rapid economic development in general, and its social control and stratification in particular."—Pacific Affairs

• Table of Contents for Organizing Through Division and Exclusion Preface 1. Institutional Exclusion and the Case of China 2. The Origin and Evolution of China's Hukou System 3. The Registrations: Structural and Operational Features of the PRC Hukou System 4. The PRC Hukou System in Action: Division, Exclusion, and Control 5. The Impact of the PRC Hukou System 6. China's Hukou System in Comparative Perspective 7. The Future of China's Hukou System Notes Bibliography Index