Life Amidst Rubble: Migrant Mental Health and the Management of Subjectivity in Urban China
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Authors
Amin, AH
Richaud, Lisa
Publication Date
2020Journal Title
Public Culture
ISSN
1527-8018
Publisher
Duke University Press
Volume
32
Issue
1
Pages
77-106
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Amin, A., & Richaud, L. (2020). Life Amidst Rubble: Migrant Mental Health and the Management of Subjectivity in Urban China. Public Culture, 32 (1), 77-106. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-7816305
Abstract
While previous studies have documented the trials of rural-to-urban migration in post-reform China, little is known of the consequences of urban demolition and attendant uncertainty on migrant mental health. Exploring the affective and subjective dimensions of life lived amidst rubble in a migrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Shanghai, this essay describes and analyzes small-scale practices of endurance through dynamics of time, place, and sociality. We understand these modes of dwelling in a ruined environment as key to what we refer to as the management of subjectivity, producing moments of being that potentially enable to feel and act otherwise. Considering the management of subjectivity in its own rights rather than as mere echoes of postsocialist governmentalities, we sustain a dialogue with recent writing on the production of happy and self-reliant marginalized subjects through the Chinese authorities' turn to “therapeutic governance.”
Keywords
Mental Health, Behavioral and Social Science, 3 Good Health and Well Being
Sponsorship
ESRC Newton Grant
Funder references
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N010892/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-7816305
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/283134
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Licence:
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
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