ABSTRACT
Urban unrest is plentiful in China today, even surging, according to many reports. So there is no question to be posed about the "potential" for urban unrest. But is this the same thing as asking if China's cities are likely to become truly unstable? I would maintain that it is not. Indeed, it is possible to adopt a perspective according to which the multifold state-worker confrontations that crop up frequently in the municipalities—encounters which range very widely in type, scope, and content—are almost stylized, scripted, even poised in a stasis.
