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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The makings of the Subaltern subjects
T2 - embodiment, contradictory consciousness and re-hegemonization of the Diaosi in China
AU - Sum, Ngai-Ling
PY - 2017/3
Y1 - 2017/3
N2 - This article examines the emergence since 2011 of the ‘Diaosi’ (loser) identity among second-generation migrant workers in China. This subjective identification of a new social category with little hope can be contrasted with the hopeful policy constructions of a strong China eager to promote the civilizing ‘suzhi’ (population quality) of its population nationally and internationally. Yet, as this article shows, in four steps, these phenomena are intertwined. First, it locates the emergence of this ‘Diaosi’ subject in the global and national dialectics of hope in China since the global financial crisis. Second, drawing on neo-Foucauldian and neo-Gramscian scholarship, Diaosi marginality is related to the interactions among global capitalist production, the socialist market economy, continuous state domination via a household registration system (hukou), and the civilising discourse of ‘suzhi’. Third, it shows how the Diaosi embody their multiplex loser identity and marginality affectively and expressively in their everyday demeanour. Fourth, it examines recent efforts by state/corporate capital and the party-state to re-make and re-hegemonize Diaosi life in the name of consumption, civility, and social stability. The article ends with some neo-Gramscian remarks on the complexities and contradictory consciousness of marginal social categories, such as the Diaosi, and their openness to passive revolution and (re-) hegemonization.
AB - This article examines the emergence since 2011 of the ‘Diaosi’ (loser) identity among second-generation migrant workers in China. This subjective identification of a new social category with little hope can be contrasted with the hopeful policy constructions of a strong China eager to promote the civilizing ‘suzhi’ (population quality) of its population nationally and internationally. Yet, as this article shows, in four steps, these phenomena are intertwined. First, it locates the emergence of this ‘Diaosi’ subject in the global and national dialectics of hope in China since the global financial crisis. Second, drawing on neo-Foucauldian and neo-Gramscian scholarship, Diaosi marginality is related to the interactions among global capitalist production, the socialist market economy, continuous state domination via a household registration system (hukou), and the civilising discourse of ‘suzhi’. Third, it shows how the Diaosi embody their multiplex loser identity and marginality affectively and expressively in their everyday demeanour. Fourth, it examines recent efforts by state/corporate capital and the party-state to re-make and re-hegemonize Diaosi life in the name of consumption, civility, and social stability. The article ends with some neo-Gramscian remarks on the complexities and contradictory consciousness of marginal social categories, such as the Diaosi, and their openness to passive revolution and (re-) hegemonization.
KW - subaltern
KW - Diaosi (loser)
KW - Gramsci
KW - China
KW - dialectics of hope
KW - contradictory consciousness
KW - civility
KW - identity
KW - peer-to-peer finance
KW - hegemony
KW - Foucault
KW - passive revolution
KW - financial crisis
KW - biopolitics
KW - suzhi
KW - embodiment
KW - consumption
KW - inequalities
U2 - 10.1080/14747731.2016.1207936
DO - 10.1080/14747731.2016.1207936
M3 - Journal article
VL - 14
SP - 298
EP - 312
JO - Globalizations
JF - Globalizations
SN - 1474-774X
IS - 2
ER -