This book takes students’ responses to grievances as a platform for exploring the construction of students’ rights against the backdrop of China’s shift to mass higher education and move to rule of law. Specifically, the study reconstructs the spaces of action involved in seven major responses to student discipline, with special emphasis on the role of law in students’ action and in social change. Data for this book came from interviews with students and other key players in landmark cases as well as focus-group interviews and surveys of ordinary college students at ten universities located in four geographically different cities.
The study offers an interesting example of integrated bottom-up and top-down policy/legal changes in Chinese higher education. By comparing college students to other emerging rights-claiming populations such as peasants and workers, the study also addresses a gap in the extant literature on rights, citizenship, and resistance in China and has important implications for the understanding citizenship development in China.
Investigates the changes and challenges of higher education in China from a legal perspective
Examines Martin Trow's classical thesis on the changes in the perception of receiving higher education in a Chinese context
Provides an interesting comparison to the action of other social groups such as peasants, laid-off workers, home owners and intellectuals against the backdrop of China's "rights revolution"
Constructs a three-tier model on the conceptualization of legal rights which shapes individuals' understanding of properness as well as their space of action
Ran Zhang
Chinese College Students Citizenship in China Civil rights of China Conflict Resolution Higher Education Law and legislation in China Rule of Law in China Social Change Sociological Jurisprudence