ABSTRACT
This introduction introduces the basic predicament being faced by rice farmers in post-reform China: the conflicting pressures to both migrate into cities and yet preserve their family land resources in the countryside. It posits that paddy fields play a crucial role in shaping farmers’ migration strategies. More generally, it proposes that socio-technical resources and related skills are key factors in understanding migration flows and migrant-home relations. Furthermore, the chapter proposes a socio-technical approach to investigating this paddy field predicament and explains how this approach contributes to existing literature at the intersection of the literature on agriculture, migration, and skill. Finally, it introduces the main field site, a rice-farming village in southern China, and briefly discusses the data and sources.
