*CFP* "ELITES, KNOWLEDGE, AND POWER IN MODERN CHINA. THE FORMATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF ELITES IN MODERN CHINA", INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP

Elites, Knowledge, and Power in Modern China

The formation and transformation of elites in modern China

International Workshop of the ERC ENP-China Project

at Aix-Marseille University

France

7-8 October 2019

  

In the century that followed China’s forced entry into the world order shaped by the advancing Western empires (1832-1949), the nature of elite groups in China experienced a tremendous and radical transformation. The ruling group that had dominated the country for a millennium — a narrow elite of Confucian-trained civil and military scholar-officials selected through a double process of education in the Chinese classics and the highly competitive imperial examinations— eventually faded away in 1911. Power and social prestige shifted to socially, intellectually and ethnically more diversified groups that included not just Chinese, but foreigners who operated within interlocked transnational networks. Within and beyond China, this period saw the rise of the first global elite that set the pace of multiple entangled histories.

The ERC project “Elites, Networks, and Power in Modern Urban China” investigates how  elites and elite networks in their various configurations and articulations emerged and operated not just in major cities in China, but beyond,  across the Western and Japanese empires, and the power nations (Great Britain, France, United States, Japan) themselves. It focuses specifically on individual actors rather than state institutions or community organizations. The workshop seeks to address a number of core issues about the individuals and groups that emerged as elite and the modalities and processes of elite formation and (re)deployment of elite networks; the vectors, patterns and timelines of the involvement of elites in public action, from acting in an official capacity, in self-organized associations but also assuming the role of opinion leaders.

We invite contributions that question the very notion of elites as used in existing historiography and challenge the genres (e.g. biography) or approach (e.g. prosopography) that dominate the field of elite studies in history. In the case of China, elite institutions (e.g. native-place associations, imperial examination system) constitute the bulk of historical works. Conversely, we know little about the impact that the successive shifts (e.g. abolition of examinations) or accidents of history (e.g. war) had on the generations of elites.

Methodologically, we welcome especially contributions using or exploring new data, methodologies and tools (social network analysis, data mining, spatial analysis, etc.) to examine and assess continuity and change in elite structures.

Topics to be discussed may include:

• The role of institutions in creating, perpetuating or changing elites 
• Social origin and educational trajectories 
• Shifting elite structures and identities 
• Actors, alliances and social mobilization 
• The interlocking of the economic, administrative and political elites 
• The lifestyles of the elites (social clubs, leisure, cultural practices, traveling, etc.) 
• The social, economic and cultural capital and the networks of the elites 
• The territories of the elites 
• The pathways to the elites: local identity and native-place associations 
• Changing relationships between elites and the population, and to what degree they vary over time 
• The role of media in shaping elites, as well as the images and discourses of elites

The conference will follow a workshop format, with a focus on discussion. Individual slots will be 45 minutes, leaving 15 minutes for presentation and 30 minutes for discussion.

Submission:

Applications should consist of a project abstract (ca. 500 words) and a brief biographical note of the author (ca. 100 words), to be submitted to Julie Chiang (enpmuc@gmail.com) by 31 May 2019. Successful applicants will be notified by 30 June 2019. Full papers should be sent by 8 September 2019, for pre-circulation among the participants. The conveners plan to publish an edited volume based on a selection of the presented papers. The workshop is funded by the ERC ENP-China Project, but all contributions to travel expenses are welcome.