Doctoral Dissertation Research: Getting Divorced in the Countryside: Marital Grievances, Dispute Resolutions, and Gender Inequalities.

通过研究寻求离婚的农村妇女，本项目将探讨当代中国人口中两个巨大群体的纠纷行为：农村居民和妇女。在后毛时代的中国农村，快速的社会变化是如何影响婚姻和家庭生活的？农村居民运用法律解决婚姻纠纷的程度和方式是什么？基层法律制度如何纠正不公平和不公正，又以何种方式再现和加强这些不公平和不公正？在中国，女性提起离婚诉讼的可能性远远高于男性；近年来，这种离婚诉讼中的性别差异在农村变得更加明显。然而，迄今为止还没有关于中国女性诉讼行为的研究。在强调农村妇女离婚诉讼经验的同时，本项目将对中国快速变化的社会世界中的法律动员和纠纷解决进行研究。本项目通过对中国西南四川省农村离婚诉讼的民族志研究来考察上述问题。研究将包括对离婚诉讼当事人、法律工作者、法官和法院书记员的半结构化访谈；在法院和周围社区进行参与性观察；以及法律文件分析。通过将研究调查置于当代中国农村，本项目旨在产生关于法律、政治和性别的高度语境化的知识。

By studying rural women seeking divorce, this project will explore the disputing behavior of two enormous segments of the contemporary Chinese population: rural residents and women. In post-Mao rural China, how have rapid social changes affected marriage and family life? To what extent and by what means do rural residents mobilize law to address marital disputes? In what ways does a grassroots legal system redress inequities and injustices and in what ways does it reproduce and reinforce them? In China, women are far more likely than men to initiate divorce litigation; in recent years, this gender disparity in divorce lawsuits has become ever more pronounced in the countryside. However, to date no research has explored Chinese women's litigiousness. In highlighting rural women's experiences of divorce litigation, this project will present a study of legal mobilization and dispute resolution in the rapidly changing social world of China. This project examines the aforementioned issues through an ethnographic study of divorce litigation in rural Sichuan Province in southwest China. The research will include semi-structured interviews with divorce litigants, legal workers, judges, and court clerks; participant observation in the courts and surrounding communities; and legal document analysis. By situating research inquiries in contemporary rural China, this project aims to produce highly contextualized knowledge about law, politics, and gender. Meanwhile, this project also seeks to cast new light on: (1) the processes and mechanisms whereby legal mobilization and dispute resolution reflect, create, and destroy inequalities and injustices, (2) the extent to which the rise of the rule of law in formerly authoritarian societies has transformed preexisting power structures, and (3) the social forces that are reshaping marriage, family life, and gender relationships in transitional societies.