Farming Technologies, Migration and Left-Behind Women in China: A Socio-Technical Perspective

Abstract

This article sheds new light on the connection between agriculture and rural-urban migration in contemporary China. Focusing on migrants' places of origin and the case of paddy rice fields, it investigates how rural families cope with the dual challenges of migrating to cities for employment and preserving their fields as safety net resources. In the absence of the middle generation, and especially men, due to migration, it is especially older women who face a double burden of caring not only for the fields but also for their grandchildren. This article is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in rural and urban China, including participant observation and interviews with migrating and left-behind farmers, as well as the analysis of local gazetteers, media reports, agricultural reports and statistics. Taking a socio-technical perspective on migration, which is also relevant beyond China, the article discusses three exemplary land-use strategies with a focus on the gendered implications of these strategies. It demonstrates how women who stay draw strategically on available manual and industrial farming technologies and knowledge to actively deal with their households' predicament. It argues that paying more attention to those who stay and their material world enables a better understanding of migration processes and the specific agency of left-behind women. Moreover, this provides insights into subtly changing family and gender dynamics, including challenging the binary division of technologies used for productive or reproductive labour. In so doing, this article contributes an original, qualitative exploration of the understudied rural side of migration.