O próximo Encontro dos Estudos da China, realiza-se a 19 de março de 2026, em formato online. 

Este webinar explora a formação da classe média urbana na China desde as reformas de mercado dos anos 1990, analisando como identidades de classe são construídas e disputadas no quotidiano. Com base em trabalho etnográfico realizado em Pequim, a apresentação discute o papel das políticas do Estado-Partido, das origens sociais e das práticas de estilo de vida na configuração de trajetórias de mobilidade, respeitabilidade e pertença na China urbana contemporânea.

LINK TEAMS
https://bit.ly/EncChina_Mar2026 

ABSTRACT
This webinar examines how China’s urban middle class has taken shape since the 1990s wave of market reforms, and how a new middle-class identity is made and contested in everyday life. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with middle-income residents in Beijing (2017–2018), it shows how Party-state policies and official discourse, together with class background and lifestyle practices, shape narratives of mobility, respectability, and belonging. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and social reproduction, the analysis asks whether “the middle class” is best understood as a process of class formation or as a reconfiguration of inherited advantage and privilege. Findings indicate that institutional frameworks and family background continue to shape life chances in Beijing, while consumption, market logics, and cultural distinction increasingly structure class location and how people position themselves and others. The webinar concludes by considering how these dynamics intersect with gender, place of origin, and ethnicity, and what this reveals about inequality and social stratification in contemporary urban China.