ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on marginalisation to study the Chinese case, integrating the issues of vulnerability, marginality, poverty and social exclusion. It deals with a national profile of poverty and examines the characteristics of poverty groups. The chapter aims to help enrich the sociological understanding of the nature of poverty and the possible approaches to poverty reduction. It examines the historical origin and the evolution of patterns of Chinese poverty linking it to the institutional contexts of this evolution. The chapter discusses the influences of market-oriented development on changing the nature of class, power and social stratification. Later on, market-oriented development and rapid growth delivered people with more overall resources for living than before, but this development simultaneously worsened regional and urban poverty. In this sense, the Chinese experience has shown the inadequacy of neo-liberal policy prescriptions for poverty reduction through single-minded pursuit of economic growth alone.
