THE STRUCTURATION OF CHINESE MIGRANT WORKERS: INSTITUTIONAL TRANSITIONS, LIFE EXPERIENCES AND SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES

Chinese migrant workers are workers who (1) migrate from the countryside, where they have the rights to contract farm land, work in agricultural production, and build houses on allotted residential site, and (2) work in non-agricultural sectors of cities and towns, where they don’t receive the same urban welfare benefits as local urban residents. Chinese migrant workers are characterized by their dagong lifestyle, which means “leaving their home in rural villages, going into cities, and working for others, in order to make money.” Though this group of people emerges in the rural-urban migration process associated with the rapid industrialization and urbanization in contemporary China, they are neither complete migrants, nor typical farmers, nor standard workers, as they live between the countryside and cities. The emergence and existence of Chinese migrant workers have contributed to the rapid economic growth of China in the past decades. The future of Chinese migrant workers is not only relevant to their life conditions, but also to the future of China as a whole. While radical scholars see Chinese migrant workers will resist against the present social institutions, conservative researchers argue that Chinese migrant workers will peacefully become urban citizens with economic restructuring and institutional transitions. This study finds that Chinese migrant workers have constituted a new working class in contemporary China, which means that they are a group of workers, who (1) exists in a large number, (2) possesses a stable proportion in the population structure, (3) has a distinctive lifestyle, and (4) stably exists for a relatively long period of time. In other words, they are not a transitional group that will go away soon. Rather, they make up a stable social stratum in the social structure of contemporary China. This structuration process is supported by both macro-institutional arrangements and micro-subjective experiences. At the macro-level, the interaction between the state and market in the process of institutional transition has created several innovative institutional arrangements, which have contributed to the structuration of Chinese migrant workers. These institutional arrangements include (1) the development of household autonomy system in rural villages, (2) the encouragement and regulation of informal employment relationship in cities, (3) the maintenance of differential citizenship with migrant workers receiving less in the cities, and (4) the strengthening of identity-based market ideology. All of these institutional arrangements have affected the emergence and existence of Chinese migrant workers, through framing their identities and conditioning their working and living conditions. Specifically, related to the land tenure system in rural villages, the household autonomy is directly related to their identity as family members. The regulated informal economy shapes their identity as guests in cities. In the background of differential citizenship between rural and urban residents, their semi-citizenship in cities leads to their identity as rural residents. Their Hukou-based market ideology causes their identity as lower-level workers with less human capital. At the micro-level, all migrant workers have their motivations to dagong and tend to accept the dagong lifestyle. Though their motivations are stratified in different maners, four ultimate motivations are personal honor at home, personal future in cities, household needs at home, and family development in cities. While personal honor and personal future are individualistic motivations, household needs and family development are societal motivations. While personal honor and household needs are geographically rural-oriented, personal future and family development are urban-oriented. Treating dagong as a means, Chinese migrant workers’ attitudes to this dagong lifestyle depend on whether it can meet their ends. Therefore, their attitudes are shaped by comparing the dagong lifestyle with its alternatives (education, agricultural production, and businesses and so on). The comparison may make them more optimistic or depressed about the dagong lifestyle. Four types of Chinese migrant workers are identified according to their motivations and attitudes: (1) Adventurous migrant workers want to settle in cities but do not accept the dagong lifestyle; (2) Optimistic migrant workers want to settle in cities and accept the dagong lifestyle; (3) Instrumental migrant workers do not want to settle in cities and treat dagong as a means to meet family needs; and (4) Retreating migrant workers do not want to settle in cities or accept the dagong lifestyle. Furthermore, their motivations and attitudes are changing with their working and living conditions during their migration process. These changes may be radical or conservative. Senior migrant workers, who have earned better working and living conditions in cities, will develop a strong desire to settle in cities, which is called radicalization. By contrast, family burdens might reduce the desire to settle in cities and make them focus on family needs, which is called conservatization. As to their attitudes, when they fail to find alternatives, they tend to form a high degree of acceptance of the dagong lifestyle, which is called justification (becoming optimistic). By contrast, when they feel depressed for the dagong lifestyle and find alternatives, they tend to became negative toward the lifestyle, which is called depression (becoming pessimistic). Out of the four processes, the processes of conservatization and justification become the two main micro-level dynamics of the emergence and existence of Chinese migrant workers. To conclude, this research argues that Chinese migrant workers have constituted a new working class with a distinctive lifestyle in China. As the emergence and existence of Chinese migrant workers involve many aspects of the contemporary Chinese society, this research also has theoretical and empirical implications for studying urbanization, informal employment, migration, social stratification, labor movement, and citizenship

A Journey into the City. Migrant Workers' Relation with the Urban Space and Struggle for Existence in Xu Zechen's Early Jingpiao Fiction

In contemporary China, rural-urban migrants constitute a new urban subject with entirely new identity-related issues. This study aims at demonstrating how literature can be a valid field in investigating such evolving subjectivities, through an analysis of Xu Zechen’s early novellas depicting migrants’ vicissitudes in Beijing. Combining a close reading of the texts and a review of the main social problems characterising rural-urban migration in China, this paper focuses on the representation of the identity crisis within the migrant self in Xu’s stories, taking into account the network of meanings employed by the writer to signify the objective and subjective tension between the city and the countryside

Data analysis between controllable variables and the performance of CuS crackle based electrode

In this article, we provide the data analysis between controllable variables and the performance of CuS crackle based electrode, there are four important factors which could influence the formation of cracks, the colloid concentration, drying temperature, colloid dosage and ambient humidity. We carried out and summed nineteen controlled data experiments below and other variates which could affect the performance were discussed in this article

A Novel Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Based on Pt Networks Counter Electrode

柔性染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSCs）作为一种新型的化学太阳能电池，因其精简的封装工艺、较低廉的价格、高的化学稳定性以及可弯折等优点而备受关注. 本文介绍了一种新型的柔性DSSC的制备，其光阳极为高度有序的氧化锌（ZnO）纳米线阵列，对电极为柔性、导电、透明的网状铂(Pt networks)电极. 相对于传统的铂对电极而言，这种Pt networks对电极不仅具有优异的导电能力，还展现了极好的透光性（方阻~ 100 Ω•sq-1，~80%透光率）和催化性能，此外，Pt networks电极可构筑于任意弯曲的衬底，具有优异的机械耐弯折性能. 在ZnO纳米线阵列的DSSCs的应用中，基于Pt networks膜的柔性DSSC的转化效率比铂纳米丝阵列 (Pt nanofiber arrays, Pt NFs）膜高出了32%.Flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received widespread attentions in recent years because of their ease of fabrication, low production cost, relatively high chemical stability and flexibility. We report the fabrication of ZnO DSSCs based on the highly flexible, conducting, catalytic and transparent Pt networks counter electrode, and the performance of this solar cell was characterized by SEM, XRD, polarized fluorescence microscope, motor, I-V test station and electrochemical workstation. Compared to Pt nanofiber arrays (NFs), Pt networks not only show a better conductivity, but also exhibit superior transparency and catalytic activity. Furthermore, Pt networks electrode could be constructed on arbitrary flexible substrates. The fabricated flexible ZnO DSSC based on Pt networks counter electrode achieved 1.33% photoelectric conversion efficiency, which is 32% higher than that based on Pt NFs.国家自然科学基金项目（51502253）、中央高校基本科研业务费（20720150030）及高等学校学科创新引智计划（“111 计划”，B16029）资助作者联系地址：1. 生物仿生与软物质研究院，福建省柔性功能材料重点实验室，物理系，物理科学与技术学院，厦门大学，厦门361005；2. 固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室，化学系，化学化工学院，厦门大学，厦门361005Author's Address: Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian Provincial Key Lab for Soft Functional Materials Research, Department of Physics, College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005; 2. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemistry Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005通讯作者E-mail：wxguo@xmu. edu. c

Fabrications of three copper sulfide counter electrodes and their influences on photovoltaic properties in QDSSCs

近几年，量子点敏化太阳能电池因其具有低成本、易合成、高的光电转换效率等优点而广受关注. 半导体金属硫化物具有良好的物理和化学性质，被广泛应用于各个领域，其中，铜硫化物凭借其优异的电化学催化活性，而成为量子点敏化太阳能电池良好的对电极材料. 本文通过3种不同的方法在FTO表面生长CuS纳米阵列（依次记为CuS-1、CuS-2、CuS-3），并对样品进行晶相表征、表面形貌分析、电化学性能测试以及相应量子点敏化太阳能电池器件组装，最终发现CuS-3样品具有最优的光电性能.Quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) have attracted intensive attention in scientific and industrial fields due to their high molar extinction coefficient, spectral tunability by particle size, ease of fabrication, and low cost. In the past years, semiconductor metal sulfides have attracted extensive attention because of their attractive physical and chemical properties for potential applications in many fields，such as PbS, CuS, CoS and CdS. In particular, copper sulfides have become a promising candidate for counter electrode materials in QDSSCs for their outstanding electrochemical and catalytic properties. In order to explore more stable and efficient copper sulfide counter electrode materials, in this work, we used three different methods to synthesize copper sulfide nanosheet arrays (marked as CuS-1, CuS-2, CuS-3), which were then characterized by XRD, SEM and electrochemical workstation. XRD patterns showed that all the three samples were copper sulfide (Cu:S = 1:1). And SEM images revealed that the fabrication methods of CuS significantly affected their morphologies. . The obtained CuS-1, CuS-2 and CuS-3 nanosheet arrays exhibited enhanced PCEs up to 2.92%，2.58% and 3.27%, respectively, when used as CEs in QDSSCs, implying increases of 87%，65% and 109% as compared to Pt-based QDSSCs, respectively. Through all the characterizations, we found that the CuS-3 showed the best catalytic activity in the reduction of polysulfide electrolyte among the three samples.国家自然科学基金（Nos.21503177），中央高校基本科研业务费（NO.20720150031）、高等学校学科创新引智计划（“111 计划”，B16029）资助作者联系地址：1. 生物仿生与软物质研究院，福建省柔性功能材料重点实验室，物理系，物理科学与技术学院，厦门大学，厦门361005；2. 固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室，化学系，化学化工学院，厦门大学，厦门361005；3. 纤维材料改性国家重点实验室，材料科学与工程学院，东华大学，上海201620Author's Address: 1. Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian Provincial Key Lab for Soft Functional Materials Research, Department of Physics, College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005; 2. State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemistry Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005; 3. The State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, P.R. China.通讯作者E-mail：[email protected]