On December 20, 2016, Chinese Social Sciences Today published a series of research findings of a group led by Professor Li Youmei from Shanghai Academy’s Research Center for Social Governance in Cities, focusing on issues concerning “Middle Income Group Research in Mega-Cities” and raising attention from the academic circle.

The published research findings contained six articles, including “The Middle Income Group and the Goal of a Moderately Prosperous Society” (Li Chunling, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), “Social Participation Situations of the Middle Income Group in China” (Zhang Wenhong and Liu Lin, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University), “The Formation and Social Structure Features of the Middle Income Group in Mega-Cities” (Zhang Haidong, School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University), “The Occupational Characteristics of the Middle Income Group in Mega-Cities in China” (Liang Yucheng and Jia Xiaoshuang, the Sociology Department of the School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-Sen University), “Social Participation of the Middle Income Group in Mega-Cities in China” (Liu Heqing and Liang Yucheng, the Sociology Department of the School of Sociology and Anthropology, Sun Yat-Sen University), “A Report on the Sustainable Consumption of the Urban Middle Class” (Zhu Di, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). The six articles represent an in-depth study of the formation, social structure, social participation, occupational characteristics and other issues of the middle income group in China at the current stage.

In recent years, the middle income group has increasingly become a topic of general concern in the whole society. The research group, from Shanghai Academy’s Research Center for Social Governance in Cities, focused on the lifestyle of the middle income group, carrying out investigations and research on a large scale in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to actively discuss the issues concerning the middle income group, with a view to address popular general concern about practical problems in scientific research.

(By Wang Dan)