Why read Working-Class Network Society?

Book cover of Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China

Book description

An examination of how the availability of low-end information and communication technology has provided a basis for the emergence of a working-class network society in China.

The idea of the “digital divide,” the great social division between information haves and have-nots, has dominated policy debates and scholarly analysis since the…

Explore

Topics

Genres

Asian history

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Working-Class Network Society as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Margaret Hillenbrand

Author

This book made a big impact on me because it shifts the study of culture in working-class China from familiar genres such as poetry to the vast domain of the digital.

Qiu argues that a working-class network society has taken firm shape in 21st-century China, made up of migrants, laid-off workers, retired people, young people, and small-scale entrepreneurs. In one sense, these people are the “information have-less” because they belong to the social classes typically on the wrong side of the digital divide.

But Qiu’s book shows that cheap internet access and extensive cell phone penetration in China have enabled…

From Margaret's list on the cultural lives of China’s migrant workers.