Book Description

Since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has encouraged various forms of collective agricultural organizations in an effort to improve economic development for those living in rural areas. The introduction of a Specialized Farmers’ Cooperative Law in 2007 has seen an upsurge in the formation and registration of agricultural cooperatives in China. The law specifically states that Chinese cooperatives must be democratically managed. The main aim of this thesis is to explore the various meanings of democracy within Chinese cooperatives. To do this, the meaning and definition of the cooperative enterprise in China, is also scrutinized. Modern day cooperatives in Shandan County, that have been historically associated with the 'Gung Ho' movement, are the empirical focus of this thesis. This thesis makes an original contribution to the field of workplace democracy by presenting a qualitative exploration of democracy within cooperative organizations in China. Over recent years, there have been a limited number of efforts by scholars to quantitatively measure the level of democracy within Chinese cooperatives through the use of large-scale surveys. In contrast, this thesis draws on ethnographic principles of data collection. A series of in-depth interviews, conducted over a seven month period in China, provides a rich data source to examine the meanings of democracy within Chinese cooperatives. Unlike the studies previously conducted within this academic field in China, this thesis does not assume there is necessarily a single appropriate definition that can accurately measure the complex concept of democracy on a quantitative scale. This thesis adopts a critical approach to the research questions based on the analytical theories of Michel Foucault, in particular, his theories of power/ knowledge relations.