Chinese citizens make themselves at home despite economic transformation, political rupture, and domestic dislocation in the contemporary countryside. By mobilizing labor and kinship to make claims over homes, people, and things, rural residents withstand devaluation and confront dispossession. As a particular configuration of red capitalism and socialist sovereignty takes root, this process challenges the relationship between the politics of place and the location of class in China and beyond.

“Bruckermann provides a nuanced examination of the dynamics of gender, generation and class in Shanxi province. The ethnography is detailed and compelling.” • Andrew B. Kipnis, University of Hong Kong

“An excellent, pioneering analysis… I strongly recommend it.” • Stephan Feuchtwang, London School of Economics

Charlotte Bruckermann currently works in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. Her publications include a book co-written with Stephan Feuchtwang The Anthropology of China: China as Ethnographic and Theoretical Critique (2016, Imperial College Press), and various articles and chapters on environment, kinship, housing, care, morality, and ritual.