Introduction.- Trajectory and Development of the Middle Income Group.- Consumption and Lifestyle of the Middle Income Group.- Social Security and the Risk Resistance Capacity of the Middle Income Group.- Social and Political Participation of the Middle Income Group.- Mid-Income Groups in Russian Metropolitan Cities.
Li, Peilin is an Academic Member of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He now serves as Vice-president of CASS. He earned his Ph.D. at University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) in 1987. He has published and edited many articles, books, and essay collections, in Chinese, English, and French, on social stratification and mobility (particular Chinese domestic migrant workers) and economic sociology (particular Chinese State Enterprises). He is also hosting several large projects, including “Chinese general social survey”, one of largest and earliest national sociological survey since 2006.
Gorshkov, Mikhail K., Director of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (former Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences), renowned for his investigations in social philosophy, sociology of mass consciousness and sociology of public opinion, methodology and methods of sociological research, sociology of youth, sociology of identity, sociology of social inequalities, sociology of Russian everyday life, etc.
This book includes a series of papers that mainly discuss the proposition of “double middle-income traps.” It analyzes various perspectives of middle-income groups of Russia and China including employment, education, consumption, mobility, social insurance, social values and identity, social and political participation. This book further indicates that the expansion of middle-income groups plays an important role in promoting mass consumption, maintaining continuous and stable economic growth, and overcoming the double middle-income traps. The middle class and middle-income group generally owns higher economic capital and cultural capital and is proved to be the main strength in expanding consumption by many empirical studies. However, the middle class and middle-income group has currently encountered hindrance to upward mobility, life quality, social security and class identity, which prevent the expansion of the middle-income group and improvement of social structure. Through comparing the middle-income groups of these two countries, this book gives us a panoramic view of their social and economic condition. Successfully combining theory and concrete practical guidelines, the book offers a valuable resource for all those active in this dynamic field. The book is important for students, scholars, researchers and professionals in economic and social science fields.