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Health Care Transformation in Contemporary China

Moral Experience in a Socialist Neoliberal Polity

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Jiong Tu

    1. School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

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  • Ethnographical study on healthcare transformation in a Chinese county

  • Analyses the changing doctor-patient relationships in China and the newly emerging “medical disturbance” (yinao) phenomenon

  • Presents detailed accounts and a vivid depiction of the morality and emotionality of people’s experiences of the Chinese healthcare system from a sociological perspective

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxii
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  2. Introduction: The Politics and Morality of Health Care Transformation in China

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 1-35

  3. Rescue First or Money First? Commercialised Institutions, Calculating Professionals, and Neoliberal Governance

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 37-58

  4. From ‘Care of the Self’ to ‘Entrepreneur of the Self’: Reconfiguration of Health Care Responsibilities, Needs, and Rights

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 59-84

  5. Health Insurance Regime as Differentiation and Discipline

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 85-109

  6. Gift Practice in the Chinese Health Sector: Inequality, Power and Governance

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 111-139

  7. Power Game of Nao: Violent Disputes in the Chinese Medical Sector

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 141-167

  8. Practice of the Self: ‘Barefoot Doctors’ in Post-reform China

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 169-196

  9. Conclusion: Moral Experience in a Socialist Neoliberal Polity

    • Jiong Tu
    Pages 197-217

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 219-242
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Keywords

About this book

This multifaceted book examines the free market reform of the Chinese healthcare system in the 1980s and the more collectivist or socialist counter-reforms that have been implemented since 2009 to remedy some of the problems introduced by marketization. The book is based on an ethnographical study in a Chinese county from 2011 to 2012, which investigated local people’s experience of healthcare reforms and the various ways in which they have adapted their own behavior to the constraints and opportunities introduced by these reforms. It provides a vivid depiction of the morality and emotionality of people’s experiences of the Chinese healthcare system and the myriad frustrations and sometimes desperation it induces not only among patients with significant health problems and their families, but also healthcare practitioners caught between their desire to do right by their patients and the penalties they personally incur if they do not adhere to institutionalized cost-saving measures. The people’s experiences within China’s health sector presented reflect many similar experiences in the wider Chinese society. The book is thus a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students interested in China’s healthcare reforms and scholars concerned with issues of contemporary Chinese society. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Jiong Tu

About the author

Jiong Tu is an assistant professor at the School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. Her research interests include health policies, illness experiences of cancer patients, digital health and end-of-life care. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Health Care Transformation in Contemporary China

  • Book Subtitle: Moral Experience in a Socialist Neoliberal Polity

  • Authors: Jiong Tu

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0788-1

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-0787-4Published: 22 June 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-4500-5Published: 19 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-0788-1Published: 12 June 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXII, 242

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 20 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Medical Sociology, Health Services Research, Ethnography

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