Guanxi, Social Capital and School Choice in China, 1st ed. 2017 The Rise of Ritual Capital Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective Series

This book focuses on the use of guanxi (Chinese personal connections) in everyday urban life: in particular, how and why people develop different types of social capital in their guanxi networks and the role of guanxi in school choice. Guanxi takes on a special significance in Chinese societies, and is widely-discussed and intensely-studied phenomenon today. In recent years in China, the phenomenon of parents using guanxi to acquire school places for their children has been frequently reported by the media, against the background of the Chinese Communist Party?s crackdown on corruption. From a sociological perspective, this book reveals how and why parents manage to do so. Ritual capital refers to an individual's ability to use ritual to benefit and gain resources from guanxi.

Ji Ruan is Lecturer at Hanshan Normal University, China. His research interests include Educational Sociology and Elderly Studies.