Intergenerational deferral & subaltern masculinity under construction: Scaffolding identities among migrant men in the Shanghai building trades

Description

This talk outlines the concept of subaltern masculinity as a conceptual tool for understanding gendered experiences of men working as informal migrant laborers in the Chinese construction industry. In contrast to existing literature on the gendered experiences of male migrants in urban China, which often emphasizes the potential of single male migrants as a source of social disruption, I argue that the dominant register with which men employed in construction labor relate to city life is one of resignation, coupled with a deferral of positive futurity toward the generation that follows. Thus, for construction workers belonging to an older generation of rural-urban migrants, positive orientations toward urban futurity are displaced to the younger generation. This resignation and very lack of (personal) optimism has, in its deferral to reproductive futurity, become a key element in both the constitution of Chinese urban polities, and the material processes of construction, building, and repair that make them possible.

Period	4 Nov 2024
Held at	Liverpool University
Degree of Recognition	International