Relative Pauperization and Involution in Contemporary China: A Survey of Jingzhou City.

The article explores the political-economic dimension of involution, which refers to the subjective feeling that increased investment of effort and other resources into personal development, based on a survey of 301 individuals in Jingzhou, China. Cited are the argument that the expansion of capitalistic production relationships in China has produced a situation of relative pauperization, and the need to recenter class analysis in understanding the political economy of socialism.