ABSTRACT
Since the early 1980s, many very signifi cant changes have taken place in the economic and social organization and management in rural China and the most important among them is the abolition of the People’s Commune system. Many new forms of organization and management have since emerged and have been implemented in different areas. This shows a very clear trend of transition from a singular to multiple institutions in the course of organizing and managing rural development at the grass roots. This chapter will analyse these institutional changes, especially informal institutional changes, happening in one rural village in central China. The village is Fuxing village (the former Duanjia village) of Hanchuan City, Hubei Province, one of the fi ve sample villages studied during the past decade by the author, and the new institution implemented in the village is what the local people call ‘yichang daicun’ in Chinese which translates into English as ‘integrating village with company’ (IVWC).
