ABSTRACT
Unemployment in rural China is a problem that has burgeoned in recent years and now affects tens of millions of people. Before considering the causes and policy responses to this phenomenon, it is useful to clarify what is meant by the concepts of ‘rural’ and ‘unemployment’. In the case of China, ‘rural’ is a category that has been constructed through administrative fiat. Further, ‘unemployment’, a situation in which people have no means for supporting their livelihoods, has been created through changes in China’s administrative and institutional structures.
