중국 선전지역 외래인구의 서발턴화 양상의 변화 (Changing Patterns of Subalternization among Migrant Populations in Shenzhen, China)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 서울시립대학교 인문학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 도시인문학연구 / 17권 / 1호 / 273 ~ 306페이지
· 저자명 : 윤종석

초록

본 논문은 중국 개혁개방의 최전선 도시인 선전(深玔)을 중심으로 외래인구, 특히농민공이 경험한 ‘서발턴화(subalternization)’ 양상의 변화를 분석한다. 선전은 제도밖의 예외공간으로 기능하며 외래인구를 도시 발전의 핵심 동력으로 활용해왔으나, 그들은 제도적 시민권의 부재 속에 비가시화된 존재로 남아 있었다. 본 연구는 토머스의 서발턴 개념 - ‘억제할 수 없는 서발턴’, ‘헤게모니적 서발턴’, ‘시민-서발턴’ - 을이론적 틀로 삼아, 1980~90년대의 배제와 억압, 2000년대 이후의 조건부 통합과다면성을 구분하여 서술한다. 점수적립제 호적제도, 거주증 정책 등은 외래인구를체제 내로 포섭하려는 전략이었으나, 이는 시민권의 자격화와 새로운 통치기제의정착으로 귀결되었다. 특히 2010년대 후반 ‘싼허 청년’ 등의 사례는 제도 내 시민권획득 이후에도 여전히 경계에 위치한 존재로서 외래인구의 새로운 정체성과 실천을보여준다. 본 연구는 선전이라는 도시를 통해 중국 도시화의 비동시적 근대성과 계층화된 시민권 구조, 그리고 동아시아적 맥락에서의 서발턴 개념 재구성 가능성을 탐색한다.

영어초록

This study investigates the evolving process of subalternizationexperienced by the migrant population - particularly rural migrant workers (nongmingong) - in Shenzhen, China’s foremost experimental city during the era of reform and opening. While Shenzhen has been celebrated as a “model city” and a space of rapid economic development, it has simultaneously functioned as an exceptional institutional space where the majority of its residents migrants from rural areas have remained marginalized from full citizenship and social recognition.
Drawing on Peter D. Thomas’s reconceptualization of the subaltern in three categories - the irrepressible subaltern, hegemonic subaltern, and citizen-subaltern - this paper traces the shifting modes of exclusion, conditional inclusion, and ambivalent subject formation among Shenzhen’s migrant population over the past four decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, migrants were largely invisible and unincorporated, functioning as “irrepressible subalterns” who materially sustained the city but were excluded from its institutional frameworks. The 2000s marked a shift as social tensions and labor unrest, along with symbolic events such as the 2003 Sun Zhigang incident, prompted local and national governments to implement integration policies. These included social insurance coverage, the point-based hukou(household registration) system, and equalization of public services. Such efforts transformed many migrants into “hegemonic subalterns” - visible and partially incorporated, yet still structurally unequal and subjected to conditional citizenship based on productivity and conformity.
In the 2010s, a new generation of migrant youth, particularly those associated with the Sanhelabor market, emerged as “citizen-subalterns” - individuals who reside within institutional boundaries yet remain symbolically and practically peripheral. Their fragmented experiences of urban belonging, often expressed through humor, irony, and everyday resistance, reveal the limitations of state-led developmental citizenship and the continuing ambiguity of their social position. These layered trajectories of subalternization underscore that the migrant population in Shenzhen cannot be understood as a homogeneous underclass but rather as a heterogeneous and temporally shifting collectivity shaped by policies, discourses, and lived negotiations.
By situating these transformations within the broader context of China’s urban governance and East Asian developmentalism, this study offers a localized yet theoretically informed reinterpretation of the subaltern, shedding light on the structural dynamics of inclusion, exclusion, and conditional rights in contemporary Chinese cities.

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