China's one-child rule is unassailably one of the most controversial social policies of all time. In the first book of its kind, Susan Greenhalgh draws on twenty years of research into China's population politics to explain how the leaders of a nation of one billion decided to limit all couples to one child. Focusing on the historic period 1978-80, when China was just reentering the global capitalist system after decades of self-imposed isolation, Greenhalgh documents the extraordinary manner in which a handful of leading aerospace engineers hijacked the population policymaking process and formulated a strategy that treated people like missiles. Just One Child situates these science- and policymaking practices in their broader contexts--the scientization and statisticalization of sociopolitical life--and provides the most detailed and incisive account yet of the origins of the one-child policy.

近年来，收入差异以及其他方面的经济社会差异的迅速扩大引起人们的广泛关注，理论家和学者们对于当前经济社会分化的现状和未来趋势提出了几种不同的说法，孙立平的“断裂社会”观点认为目前的分化已走向两极分化，而陆学艺等人提出的“中产化现代社会”观点则认定趋向于中产化的现代化社会结构正在出现：同时，李路路的“结构化”论点认为边界日益分明的阶级阶层结构已然形成，而李强、李培林的“碎片化”观点则强调分化的多元特征而阶级阶层结构难以形成。本书采用丰富的实证资料及社会分层研究方法，考查和验证上述几种理论观点，总结出当前经济社会分化的丰流态势是多层分化的结构化趋势，并进而预测，这一分化趋势的未来走向，取决于社会阶层和社会群体之间的利益竞争和妥协，同时也取决于国家的政策导向。