Shelter and Resistance in the Structure of Oppression: Examining the Practice and Meaning of Transgender Women's Shelters in China from a Social Justice Perspective

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines the practice and meaning of grassroots transgender women's shelters in China as spaces of social justice and marginal resistance within an oppressive socio-cultural and policy structure. Drawing upon Iris Marion Young’s "Five Faces of Oppression," Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional social justice framework (redistribution, recognition, and participation), and feminist agency theory, the study explores how a highly vulnerable group navigates systemic marginalization. The research methodology employs qualitative fieldwork, participant observation, and semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted over two weeks in the summer of 2024 at an transgender women shelter, supplemented by follow-up online contact. The findings indicate that while transgender women experience severe structural oppression across employment, housing, education, and healthcare, the shelter functions as a crucial mechanism for material redistribution, cultural recognition, and socio-political participation. By providing stable housing, shared hormone medications, identity validation, and collective decision-making, the shelter allows residents to transform from passive victims into active agents of resistance. However, the study also highlights significant limitations, including internal tensions—such as hidden power imbalances between core managers and regular members, and friction between long-standing and new residents—alongside severe external constraints like police harassment, landlord evictions, and institutional pressures. Ultimately, the thesis underscores both the transformative possibilities and the structural boundaries of informal queer mutual aid networks in post-socialist China.