Rural-Urban Inequality in Post-Reform China: Persistent Divides and Key Stratifying Forces

Call for Papers

Special Issue: Rural-Urban Inequality in Post-Reform China: Persistent Divides and Key Stratifying Forces

Journal: Chinese Sociological Review

Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

Manuscript Deadline: 31 August 2026

About the Special Issue

The Chinese Sociological Review invites submissions for a Special Issue titled "Rural-Urban Inequality in Post-Reform China: Persistent Divides and Key Stratifying Forces."

This Special Issue explores the persistent and evolving dimensions of rural–urban inequality in post-reform China. While decades of market reforms, poverty alleviation programmes, rural revitalisation initiatives, and expanded social welfare have significantly transformed Chinese society, inequalities between rural and urban populations continue to shape access to education, employment, housing, healthcare, mobility, digital resources, and life opportunities.

The issue particularly focuses on the emerging "paradoxical stratification mechanisms"—social, technological, and policy developments originally intended to reduce inequality but which may have unintentionally deepened existing divides. Researchers are encouraged to investigate how macro-level forces such as state policies, market reforms, digitalisation, urbanisation, and institutional arrangements simultaneously create opportunities for social mobility while reinforcing new forms of stratification.

The editors welcome innovative theoretical, empirical, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, ethnographic, computational, and AI-assisted research that advances understanding of rural–urban inequality in contemporary China.

Scope and Topics of Interest

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Rural–urban housing inequality and wealth accumulation

• Land rights and urban property ownership

• Gender inequality and family dynamics

• Rural–urban labour market disparities

• Migration, hukou reforms, and mobility

• Educational inequality and higher education access

• Vocational education and social mobility

• Digital divide and digital literacy

• Platform economy, e-commerce, and rural entrepreneurship

• Online education and digital governance

• Health, welfare, and environmental inequalities

• Urbanisation, regional development, and infrastructure

• Intergenerational mobility and family strategies

• Big data, AI, computational methods, and innovative research approaches to studying inequality

Submission Guidelines

• Authors should first submit an extended abstract of approximately 1,000 words (excluding references).

• The email subject should read: "CSR Rural-Urban Inequality Special Issue."

• Shortlisted authors will be invited to submit full draft manuscripts and participate in a workshop at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in late June 2026.

• Revised manuscripts must be submitted by 31 August 2026 through the journal's online submission system.

• All submissions will undergo the journal's standard double-blind peer review process.

• The Special Issue is expected to be published in Summer 2027.

Guest Editors

Ling Zhu
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Jing Song
Associate Professor, Gender Studies Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

John Logan
Professor, Department of Sociology, Brown University

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