Claiming Homes

Explores how ‘care’, defined as ‘work done on behalf of others’, allows villagers to forge belonging and stake claims over the locality, its values, and each other, in defiance of the social exclusion projected by China’s politics of place and localization of class.

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.

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.

“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