ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how people living in a rural county at the periphery of China’s underdeveloped western regions are negotiating the wide-scale social and economic transformations associated with recent economic development. My findings are based upon research conducted in the Gongshan Dulong and Nu Nationalities Autonomous County (hereafter Gongshan) – one of four counties that constitute the Nujiang Lisu Nationality Autonomous Prefecture (hereafter Nujiang). Until recently, Gongshan’s largely ethnic minority population lived as subsistence farmers and were relatively cut off from the national economy beyond their county border. However, over the past decade economic development has transformed Gongshan’s social fabric. I explore how the implementation and strict enforcement of nine-year compulsory education, the implementation of an environmental conservation programme, the promotion of outward migration for work, and the expansion of social and economic infrastructure, have contributed to the marginalization of traditional agriculture livelihoods and closer integration with the national economy.
