Education and spatial reproduction: How does education perpetuate rural–urban spatial inequality in China?

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Abstract

Neo-Marxist spatial theory has revealed the production of space and spatial inequality due to capital accumulation but is unable to explain the perpetuation of spatial inequality. This study conducted interviews and questionnaires with rural parents/guardians, teachers and principals, educational officials, villagers and village officials in China to fill this research gap by revealing the role of education in reproducing spatial inequality. Based on the evidence from County G of Central China, this study shows that structural rural–urban spatial inequality contributes to an ideology of urban supremacy. This cultural ideology further leads to an urban-biased rural schooling system and a trend of educational migration, both of which reproduce spatial inequality. Thus, the educational system functions to reproduce the space.

Author

• Yuan Teng, Central China Normal University