The Historical Roots of Social Policy Exclusion: Shanghai and Bombay in the 1950s

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED

Sponsored by
China Center for Social Policy

Featuring
MARK FRAZIER
Professor of Politics and Academic Director of the India China Institute, New School for Social Research
Author of The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth Century Shanghai and Bombay

Moderated by
QIN GAO
Professor of Social Policy and Founding Direction, China Center for Social Policy

About the Event

At this lecture, Professor Mark Frazier (bio) will present some of the ideas from his new book, The Power of Place: Contentious Politics in Twentieth Century Shanghai and Bombay (Cambridge University Press, 2019), which examines long-term changes in political geographies and patterns of popular protest in the two cities. Specifically, he will look at social and labor policies in post-revolutionary Shanghai and post-colonial Bombay. While regimes in both China and India made deep commitments to socialist transformation, housing and labor policies in these cities were more incremental than transformative. By illuminating the historical context, argues Professor Frazier, we can better understand contemporary debates over informal housing, eviction of inner-city residents, scarcities of manufacturing jobs, and questions of unequal citizenship.

This lecture is part of the 2019-2020 annual lecture series on “Using Scientific Evidence to Address Social Challenges in China,” cosponsored by the Columbia China Center for Social Policy and Weatherhead East Asian Institute and supported by the Columbia School of Social Work.