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Conference in cooperation with the University of MacaoTHURSDAY 18 DECEMBER 20149h30-10h00Welcoming remarks: Alain Dieckhoff, Director, CERIIntroduction: Françoise Mengin, Sciences Po-CERI,  and Jean-Louis Rocca, Sciences Po-CERI10h00-13h00   Institutional Voids as Sites of InquiryChair: Françoise MenginDiscussant: Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, CNRS/CERI-Sciences Po10h00-11h00Talking to Each Other, Despite EverythingIsabelle Thireau, CNRS-EHESSOvercoming Institutional Voids during Market Transition: Private Sector Financing in ChinaTak-Wing Ngo, University of Macao11h00-11h30   Coffee break11h30-12h30   Debate14h00-16h00   Making Chinese Subjects on the International StageChair: Tak-Wing NgoDiscussant: Richard Banégas, Sciences Po-CERI14h00-15h00How my Life Changed in Africa: Narratives of Chinese Expatriate WorkersAntoine Kernen, Université de LausanneOn the Road: Turning Taiwanese Citizens into Chinese Subjects?Françoise Mengin, Sciences Po-CERI15h00-16h00   Debate16h00-16h30   Coffee break16h30-18h00  Subjectivation, Activism, and their Reshaping in Contemporary China: a Tentative Historical OverviewKeynote speech by Yves Chevrier, EHESSFRIDAY 19 DECEMBER 20149h30-12h30   Making Peasants Something Else Chair: Isabelle ThireauDiscussant: Kathy Rousselet, Sciences Po-CERI9h30-11h00 Turning Farmers into CitizensDavid Bray, University of SydneyThe Making and Limitations of Chinese Compassionate Government: A Case Study of Rural Migrants’ ChildrenCamille Salgues, EHESSAn Exemplary Movement: What Wukan “Farmers” Protest Tells about Chinese PoliticsJean-Louis Rocca, Sciences Po-CERI11h00-11h30  Coffee break11h30-12h30  Debate14h00-16h00   Subjects and Public Policies: the Urban SceneChair: Jean-Louis RoccaDiscussant: Laurent Gayer, CNRS-CERI14h00-15h00 Regional Differences of Community Governance in Urban ChinaXiao Lin, Chinese Academy of Social SciencesBetween Civil Servants and Local Representatives: an Ethnographic Perspective on the Subjectivation Processes of Residents' Committee Agents in BeijingJudith Audin, EHESS15h00-16h00   Debate&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Responsables scientifiques : Françoise Mengin, Sciences Po-CERI, et Jean-Louis Rocca, Sciences Po-CERICERI-56 rue Jacob, 75006 Paris / Salle de conférencesEntrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles&#160;&#160;With a high rate of growth, the emergence of a middle class and a widespread access of the population to social networks, the issue of China democratization is omnipresent in the bulk of analysis. For some, this democratization is unavoidable since it goes in line with the sense of history. For others, China is not suited to the so-called Western model, and the Chinese must find, or have already found their own democratic formula. It is only by drawing from its philosophical roots that China will be able to devise an alternative model, but no less democratic. These approaches are in fact very similar: they impose a Manichean and essentialist model – democracy versus non-democracy – and they grasp political changes in normative and/or culturalist terms. “Democratization” is perceived as a well-established process. Certainly, one must take into account local specificities; yet, through a graphic phrase, the necessities of modernization seem to guide, step by step, the transition to democracy.Far be it from us to consider that the issue of producing democratic subjects is not on the agenda. In China, as elsewhere, it is the democratic imaginary – being or not democratic – that is on the horizon. What we advocate for is the need to appraise the contradictions between this horizon and the characteristics of power relations in contemporary China. Our approach is merely to put forward some working hypothesis.Firstly, we would like to stress on the paradoxical dimension of democratization. In its very broad meaning, democratization is the process of institutionalizing the individual as the basic unit of the political system (free elections, but also freedom of speech and assembly). Yet, according to Michel Foucault, subjectivation of citizens is also subjection (assujetissement). Individuals are subjects of their own life and are subjected to domination (1) . Secondly, refusing historical or cultural determinisms entails to put emphasis on the very historicity of political phenomena. Indeed, the political action is reliant on the legacy of institutions and memories, in particular personal experiences Chinese people of all walks of life have been confronted to, for two or three generations. Thirdly, and conversely, the historicity of societies compels us to take into account all contingencies. China’s development during the last thirty years has shown the part played by chance, unpredictability, as well as the “groping” nature of reforms. There is no Chinese model but a whole combination of decisions, events and phenomena.————————————1)Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality I: The Will to Knowledge, New York, Pantheon Books, 1978 [1976], p. 60.&#160;AnglaisSalle des conférences, Bâtiment SCERIUniversity of Macao