The Theory of Peasant Economy and Involution and De-involution

Today, thirty-five years after this author first wrote about involution, and at a time when that term and concept have come to be commonly used by many people, this article revisits that term to explain more clearly and succinctly its meaning and also to add to it contributions made by other scholars as well as by this author’s own further research, including new research on the de-involution of the past few decades in China, and analyses of the mechanisms and theoretical logics contained therein. Because China’s peasant economy has been the longest-lasting and largest in the world, perhaps also the most highly involuted, and its recent changes, including de-involution, make up the most dramatic example of the modernization of a peasant economy, it serves to explain most clearly the principles and mechanisms of change, and shows just how different those are from the Western historical experience of transition from feudalism to capitalism. Furthermore, peasant economy, not just in China but also in many other developing countries, has been the source most recently of the rise globally of an enormous informal economy—of labor that has little or no legal protection or benefits, according to the definition of the International Labor Organization—now reaching one-half to three-quarters of all urban employment in many developing countries, and more in China than anywhere else. That too is directly connected to the peasant economy and its background of involution and de-involution. At the moment, China’s future direction on this matter is at once full of uncertainties and of exciting promises.