Social Institutions in Contemporary China and the COVID-19 Pandemic: From Actualities to Prospects

Abstract

This thesis explores metamorphoses of contemporary Chinese social institutions, which function inversely in urban and rural contexts, in face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a growing socio-economic inequality due to the COVID-19 recession. Focusing on political, economic, and cultural institutions endemic to China, and drawing on sociopolitical as well as ethnographic approaches, this research contributes to discussions concerning institutional logics, both as a meta-theory and an in-depth-analysis of social changes, by arguing that top-down anti-poverty policies will fail to beget enduring effects without an active and coordinated backing of major social institutions equally directed at urban and rural areas in China. Finally, this thesis posits institutional reforms and structural changes as key tactics for bridging the urban-rural divide in the country and revitalizing China’s economic prospects.