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Migration and Social Structure: The Spatial Mobility of C hinese Lawyers
Author(s) -
Liu Sida,
Liang Lily,
Michelson Ethan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/lapo.12016
Subject(s) - economic shortage , social mobility , social stratification , competition (biology) , inequality , sociology , stratification (seeds) , legal profession , law , political science , economic geography , geography , seed dormancy , ecology , mathematical analysis , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , government (linguistics) , biology , botany , germination , dormancy
This article uses the case of C hinese migrant lawyers to examine how the spatial mobility of individual practitioners shapes the social structure of the profession. Drawing on data from 261 interviews conducted in twelve C hinese provinces during 2004–2010, the 2009 C hinese L egal E nvironment S urvey, lawyer yearbooks, and other public sources, the authors examine the patterns, causes, outcomes, and structural consequences of C hinese lawyers' internal migration. The empirical analysis shows that the spatial mobility of C hinese lawyers has not only increased the stratification and inequality of law practice in major cities such as B eijing and S hanghai, but it has also aggravated the shortage of legal service and intensified interprofessional competition in western and rural C hina. Based on findings from the C hinese case, the article connects the sociology of law and migration studies and moves toward a new processual theory for understanding the relationship between microlevel mobility and macrolevel stratification in the legal profession.