Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Robinson Crusoe’s Trade and Labour: Daniel Defoe’s Critique of Political Economy of Maritime Empires

KANG Zixing

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (2): 29-59.

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From the perspective of social theory, Daniel Defoe's Novel Robinson Crusoe is a fable of importance. The tale of Robinson Crusoe is a product not just of the European social transformation but also of the expansion of western civilization. In Defoe's view, fiction was a special kind of historical writing. In Robinson Crusoe, he expressed his thoughts on the social and political order of his time. Through Robinson's adventure, Defoe exposed the enslavement of colonies by European countries, and criticised the injustice of maritime empires at their foundation. In the desert island, Robinson used his hands to meet his own needs, creat wealth and restore the civilisation. The Robison in island was a metaphor that presented the natural laws of production and order, and demonstrated the natural foundation of wealth and civilisation. For Defoe,wealth and civilisation were rooted in natural reason and human labor. More importantly, through Robinson's interaction with Friday, Defoe allowed the readers to see the noble nature of "barbarians". By searching for the origins of civilisation and barbarism, Defoe removed their opposition and placed them in a continuous and unified historical process. The distinction between literary and wild could only reflect the difference between production techniques and customs. Civilised and barbarous society shared the same human foundations and moral laws. A unified system of political economy, which conforms to the laws of natural justice and involves different traditions of civilisation, can lay its foundation on the common human nature. In Defoe's view of history, we can find a dialectic of nature and civilisation, according to which, different civilisations and traditions can communicate and cooperate with each other.

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Psychoanalysis and War Experience：War as the Main Thread of Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

ZHANG Weizhuo

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (2): 126-150.

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The revolutionary significance of psychoanalysis in the history of thought is closely related to its understanding of war experience. Since the end of the 19th century, war has been part of historical constants that defines the overall experience of modern people. Sigmund Freud's Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis during the WW II serves as a core interpretive text for us to understand his theoretical system from the WW II experience. Introductory Lectures provides us with a systematic account of the early achievements of the psychoanalysis movement as well as some embryonic ideas of Freud's later psychoanalytic theory. More importantly, the War constitutes the main thread of Introductory Lectures' vision and theoretical development. War experiences seem to rekindle the ideological origin of psychoanalysis and force the author to explore the deeper world of human nature. This study focuses on Freud's idea of war and the general experience of modern people. Taking Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis as the core text, combined with Freud's other major works in his early and late stages, the paper attempts to answer the following three questions:First, what kind of human primitive experience can be restored by psychoanalysis as philosophy or "the first philosophy" in the perspective of war? Second, what does psychoanalysis as sociology reveal about the everyday state of human beings? Third, when psychoanalysis as a "re-education" theory intervenes in daily experience, what difficulties will it encounter, and what kind of educational art will it develop? In Freud's thought, psychoanalysis as the first philosophy exposes the conflicting self with various intentions in the state of war, and gradually reveals the self's Eros and the instinct of death. On this basis, psychoanalysis as sociology presents the face of war in daily life and its essence of entanglement and conflict between human erotic instinct and death instinct. Finally, psychoanalysis as a new educational theory helps guiding Eros and restraining death instinct by pointing out the limits, conditions and future hopes of modern education.

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Power Space and Governance Performance: An Analysis Based on Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey

SHENG Zhiming, ZHOU Qing

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2021, 41 (5): 1-30.

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Why do communities in different spatial areas have different governance performance? Applying the perspective of spatial theory, this paper proposes an analytical concept of "power space". The concept refers to the distance between a community and the city administrative power center. Based on the data from Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey(SUNS), this study examines the variation in governance performance by communities that locate in different areas of the city power spatial structure, and analyzes the cause and mechanism of the differences. The study suggests that the spatial distance between the community and the center of governance power is not merely physical and geographical, it is social and political as well. We find that the distance to the center of power has a significant effect on the community's governance performances that are easily observable but little effect on those less perceptible. This reveals that "power space" affects strongly on things that can be easily recognized by higher level officials, but not things less visible but appreciated by residents. Such a pattern can be explained by the current governance performance assessment system and incentive mechanism. Power space exercises its influence through the mechanism of public resource allocation and performance benchmarks, which is equally applicable to other areas of social governance. In sum, this study contributes to a better understanding of the underlying logic of current grassroots social governance.

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One-Sided Demands or Mutual Needs? Combination of Needs and Parent-Child Choices in Inter-Generational Cohabitation

TAO Tao, ZHONG Yuqi, HUANG Jingyi

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (6): 214-240.

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Changes in family living arrangements have accompanied China’s transition to modernization. The aim of this study is to explore the choice mechanism driven by the needs of both parents and children behind the seemingly homogeneous inter-generational cohabitation of different families. Based on the data from the 2018 China Elderly Longitudinal Social Survey, this study delves into the need and choice mechanisms of elderly parents and adult children living together， explores the heterogeneity in inter-generational cohabitation and the inter- generational interactions under ever changing inter-generational relationships. It further analyses the two dimensions of gender and birth order of adult children in different types of inter-generational cohabitation. The results show that， in terms of intergenerational co-living needs， cooperative cohabitation occupies the primary position in China， followed by nurturing cohabitation based on pure offspring needs， and then supportive cohabitation based on pure parental needs. The proportion of alienated cohabitation in which both generations are not in need is the least. The main theme of inter-generational cohabitation in China today is a shift in the centre of gravity and a strong emphasis on reciprocity. There are differences in the logic of inter-generational reciprocity between urban and rural areas. Rural parents place more emphasis on economic needs while urban parents place more emphasis on living needs. The demand of children in both rural and urban is led by housing needs. In terms of inter-generational cohabitation mechanisms， sons are still the preferred choice for inter-generational cohabitation. However， daughters are more likely to take on the responsibility of supporting parents， especially in rural area. Younger siblings in rural areas are more likely to enjoy help from their parents in inter-generational cohabitation and are also more likely to take on the responsibility of supporting parents. In short， change and continuity have always presented in Chinese society， and tradition and modernity are both rooted in Chinese family life.

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Window of Time and Trauma of Time: The Temporal Effect of Left-Behind Experience on Subjective Well-Being

LIU Zhijun, YANG Shuai, WANG Yan

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (6): 188-213.

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Existing studies have mainly focused on the current and short-or medium-term effects of left-behind experience， but lacked sufficient attention to the long-term and time-window effects， as well as the repair of negative effects of the experience. From the perspective of life course， based on the 2018 China Labor Force Dynamics Survey(CLDS)， this study analyzes the time effect of the childhood left- behind experience on the subjective well-being of adulthood in four aspects: cumulative length of left-behind， length after left-behind experience terminated， stages of being left-behind and different guardianship of left-behind. The results show that first， the experience of left-behind has a long-term negative impact on the subjective well-being of individuals， and shows a “double time effect”， that is， on the one hand， the longer the cumulative time of left-behind， the greater the negative impact in adulthood； on the other hand， the increase of the length of the post-left-behind period does not correspond to the increase of subjective well-being in adulthood. Second， the negative impact shows a reversed increasing characteristic of left-behind at age of junior middle school < at age of primary school < at age of preschool， indicating that the preschool stage is the“key window” affecting adulthood most critically. Third， regardless of the stage， single-parent and grandparent custody present negative impact on individuals with the former worse than the later. Finally， the propensity score matching method applied in the paper verifies the robustness of the impact of childhood left-behind experiences at all stages on individual subjective well-being in adulthood. This study confirms the enduring effects of childhood experiences on subjective well-being in adulthood， and reveals the duration effect， time window effect， and guardianship effect of childhood experiences.

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The Vertical-Mutual Constraint System: A Historical State Model in China

CAO Zhenghan

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2021, 41 (4): 30-68.

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One of the conundrums in state-building is that the state must not only have sufficient capacity to defend its territory, enforce laws, and maintain social order, but at the same time, its actions must be regulated. In theory, two mechanisms have been proposed to address this problem:horizontal-mutual constraint and vertical-mutual constraint. The horizontal-mutual constraint refers to the horizontal separation of power within the same level of government, such as the separation of legislative power, judicial power, and administrative power, to form a relationship of checks and balances. The vertical-mutual constraint refers to a mutual relationship among central supervision, local governance and social accountability to constrain the power of the central and local governments, especially of the latter, through the hierarchy of division of powers from the central government to local governments and lastly, the society. In China, the horizontal-mutual constraint mechanism is hard to be functional because of the centralized Junxian system. However, the multi-level governance structure derived from the centralized Junxian system offers China the possibility of adopting the vertical-mutual constraint mechanism. Thus, for China, how to construct a vertical-mutual constraint mechanism and how to adopt the mechanism are the major concerns of state-building and state governance. Historically, Chinese scholars have made systematic studies of these issues. The direction of their exploration is to construct the relationship between the state and society based on the concept "Mandate of Heaven"(tianming) and expand it into mutual constraints between the central government, local governments and society. The significance of this exploration is that it reveals two important conditions for the full functioning of the vertical restraint mechanism. One is the separation of government and governance, and the other is the separation of dominion and administrative authority, in so doing it forms a mode of combining centralized government with decentralized administration. This paper characterizes this mode as the vertical-mutual constraint system.

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Rebuilding Smiles: The Production of Knowledge-in-Practice in the Cleft Lip and Palate Treatment

LIU Dan, HUANG Yingying

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (6): 132-159.

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This study of practical medical sociology analyzes the process as well as specific aspects of practical knowledge production in the treatment of cleft lip and palate (CLP). Based on our fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this paper finds that as the meta-theme of cleft lip and palate treatment normalization is the goal to“create a normal face and reconstruct a normal life” for CLP patients. The sequential treatment method for cleft lip and palate in China， influenced by the western concepts， is a gradually localised “standard” treatment paradigm that stipulates the necessity of intervention in the socialization process of child development in addition to the treatment in order to rebuild normal life in the future. This normative therapeutic paradigm generates different aspects in the specific practice process. On the one hand， centering on facial reconstructive surgeries， Knowledge-in-Practice of CLP treatment aims to build normal faces for the patients. It facilitates two body techniques in situated medical treatment - nursing massage and language therapy. These two techniques jointly shape the patients’ visible body and functional body and thereby “normalise” patients. On the other hand， as the treatment progresses and CLP children grow， the goal of“reconstructing a normal life” becomes prominent in the intervention. It embodies the other aspect of knowledge- in-Practice of CLP treatment： “normal life” means to follow the development trajectories of ordinary children but also explore the bodily values of individuals with CLP. It encourages CLP children to cultivate individual specialties and win peer competitions in order to copy with the strong uncertainty of the future of CLP individuals. During the processes of routinizing treatment into everyday life and medicalizing parenting practice， the application of normative medical knowledge extends from medical settings to social life， and medical knowledge transforms into socialized knowledge as well. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between medical knowledge and practice， and between biology and society. It reevaluates the multi-dimensional， dynamic and value-related therapeutic practice so as to reflect on the action logic of each subject behind the treatment and the process of knowledge production. Finally， it enriches the empirical research on“marginalized bodies” from the perspective of medical sociology.

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Human Nature and Politics of Commercial Society: Mandeville on Sociableness and Commercial State

ZHANG Shuai

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2021, 41 (5): 180-207.

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Recent researches on commercial sociability and commercial states reveal the great progress made by the eighteenth century political and moral theorists compared with their predecessors in the seventeenth century, and the relevance of their thought to our contemporary society. However, scholars have not yet noticed Mandeville's contribution in this regard. This paper demonstrates the importance of Mandeville's theoretical contribution in two aspects. Firstly, Mandeville's theory of "sociableness" shows how commercial prosperity and luxury in a society are based on hypocrisy and politeness, which are further supported by the deep-rooted pride in human nature. This new theory changes the Hobbesian version of human nature and provides a key to understanding the logic of commercial society. Secondly, Mandeville keenly points out the complex relationships between politics and commercial society. The state is essential in establishing and maintaining orders in a large commercial society, which in turn plays a crucial role for the survival of the state in international competition. In fact, Mandeville's acceptance of a morally dubious commercial society grows out of his sober awareness of international circumstances. His profound insight into the political power and moral dilemmas of the commercial society has decisively shaped the trend of political and moral philosophy thereafter. Only by incorporating moral and political perspectives into our inquires can we better grasp the theoretical significance of "commercial society".

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Funeral Xiangsheng and the Operation of Social Relationship Among the Civilians in Beijing and Tianjin in the Period of the Republic of China

LI Xiaodong

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (6): 160-187.

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With the increase of urban population mobility in modern China， it is necessary to discuss in depth the changes in the operational mode of social relations that are based on the different patterns of association. During the period of the Republic of China， Beijing and Tianjin were the biggest cities in northern China， and the scale of population movement was large， resulting in fewer blood related relatives than strangers and outsiders in social relations among the people. At the same time， under the influence of Manchus’ lifestyle， the urban culture of Beijing and Tianjin still attached great importance to the ritual gradation based on blood relation， manifested in stipulating everyone’s status and behavior standards in accordance with blood relation ethics. By analyzing funeral crosswalks (Xiangsheng) that reflected the urban culture of Beijing and Tianjin of the period， this paper argues that due to the dominant presence of migrant population， the pressure of family opinions gave way to the more tolerant community public opinions. Facing the shortage of blood relatives to carry out the normative procedure of ritual gradation， people began to embrace outsiders and strangers into the core circle of differentiated association of their mourning system. In this process， the operational logic of social relationship relied on “the distinction between righteousness and gains”， reflected as “friendship” and “taking advantage”. In the absence of blood relatives， the“friendship” based on“righteousness” enabled outsiders and strangers to enter the core circle of the differential mode of association， while “taking advantage” meant not only the pursuit of self-interest， but also the process where in the outsiders and strangers could adjust their positions appropriate to the differential mode of association.

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Dialect Distance and Peer Effect of Crime among Urban Migrants：An Empirical Analysis Based on Guangzhou， Shenzhen， and Dongguan

ZHANG Ping, XU Zhewei

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (5): 181-206.

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In the process of rapid urbanization， the unprecedented population movement brings about regional cultural collision, driving economic growth while profoundly affecting social harmony. Based on the public data of the China Judgments Online, the Dictionary of Chinese Dialects， and the 2017 China Migrants Dynamics Survey， this paper takes Guangzhou， Shenzhen， and Dongguan， three cities with a net inflow of over 10 million people， as examples for empirical analysis. By choosing dialect distance as a proxy variable of cultural differences， we investigate how it affects the hometown gang criminal behavior of the urban migrant population. The empirical results show that there is a significant positive correlation between dialect distance and hometown gang crime among the migrant population. For each additional unit of dialect distance， the likelihood of migrants choosing hometown fellows as accomplices in crime increases by 8.3%. Mechanism analysis shows that the peer effect formed by dialect distance is a main factor for the increase of gang crime among migrants. Under the same conditions， the greater the migration distance， the greater the cultural gap between the migrants and the local population. Specific to social networks， it is reflected that migrants tend to trust members of the hometown group rather than the locals， which leads relatively closed clusters of community， enforcing the peer effect and increasing the possibility of participating in gang crimes. From the perspective of dialect distance， this study quantifies the impact of cultural conflicts on the harmony and stability of urban society in the process of urbanization， enriches the theoretical exploration of culture influences on migrant crime and its governance， and has certain implications for promoting a new type of people-oriented urbanization.

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Ethical Life without Virtue: Hegel on the Ideal of Modern Society

CHEN Tao

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2022, 42 (5): 95-123.

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Hegel’s concept of “Sittlichkeit” can help us to clarify the ideal of modern society and the challenge it poses to traditional ethical practices. By comparing it with the ancient concept of “” （ethos）， we are able to see the dynamics and ideas of modern society. In Aristotle, “” constitutes a way of life that is constructed by means of customs， laws， and polity to shape human desires and appetites. Laws， institutions and customs are never self-sufficient and complete for the ethical space between natural virtues and intellectual virtues. They are fundamentally depended on human virtues. In contrast， in Hegel’s “Sittlichkeit”， modern ethical life is able to incorporate our various desires into system as “activities” by means of complete and rational laws and institutions. In principle， modern men do not need to be highly virtuous to pacify and transform their desires and win the recognition of others and freedom. By simply obeying laws and institutions， this could be achieved. However， while modern society can offer us economic， social and political independence and freedom， it cannot provide us with a place to live that is a truly comparable to a home. What we need to think is that whether we have other possibilities besides the rationalization and perfection of laws and institutions. For us， a nation with a strong ethical tradition， the future still depends on whether we can find and revive those ethical traits from our own tradition to steer rationalised laws and institutions to create a communal life worthy of desire.

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Cohort and Gender Disparities in Childbearing Motivation: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies in 2020

SHENG He, LI Jianxin

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 187-212.

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The current low fertility rate in China has become a recognized fact, and the change in childbearing attitude is one of the key reasons. Childbearing motivation is an important component of childbearing attitude and is at the forefront of the sequence from childbearing attitude to behavior. This article examines cohort and gender differences in childbearing motivation by asking respondents why they should have children. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2020, this study uses cluster analysis to classify people's childbearing motivation into four categories: "low intention and negative", "individual-oriented", "dual-oriented emotional" and "family-oriented". The result shows that more than half of Chinese residents still have family-oriented motivation of childbearing while individual-oriented and dual-oriented emotional motivation account for 23% and 15% respectively. Only 9% of the residents have low intention and negative childbearing motivation. Moreover, there are significant inter-cohort differences in childbearing motivations. Earlier birth cohorts are more likely to have dual-oriented emotional, family-oriented motivations; while younger birth cohorts are more likely to have low intention and negative, individual-oriented motivations. Among the post-80s and post-90s groups, family-oriented motivations of childbearing gradually lose their dominance, while individual-oriented motivations increase significantly. In terms of gender differences, men's childbearing motivations are more traditional than women's, and the extent of inter-cohort change is smaller for men. The differences in childbearing motivation between men and women tend to widen among later generations. The study suggests changes in educational attainment as a possible explanation.

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Rights and Power: The Law Problem in Foucault's Discourse on Governmentality

XIAO Ying

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 1-53.

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The relationship between rights and power is one of the fundamental issues in Western political thought. An "orthodox consensus" has been reached in Western political theories that state sovereignty and individual rights stipulated by laws or regulations are the legitimate source not only of power practice but also of its goal and boundary. However, in a series of lectures in the College de France, Michel Foucault took governmentality as his main theme and made an in-depth analysis of the relationship between knowledge and power from different perspectives. He showed the intricate historical relationship between rights and power, governance and law, and subverted this "orthodox consensus." By combing through the history of European social governance since the Middle Ages, he demonstrated on the one hand that state sovereignty and individual sovereign rights were formed in specific power mechanisms, and, on the other hand, he emphasized that the formation and change of governance techniques—from police to disciplinary power and then to bio-power—was a process of colonizing rights and laws in different ways. And, because of the collusion of knowledge and power, these colonial mechanisms were all the more concealed by the mask of knowledge. In the face of such an awkward situation, Foucault neither opposed governance, rather opposed excessive governance, nor advocated the return of orthodox individual rights and state sovereignty, but emphasized the construction of "new rights". These "new rights" are "critiques", that is, to reveal how power and knowledge conspire and how reason has become the governing mechanism of man in a specific historical context. In the depth of Foucault's soul flickers the light of positive "nostalgia, " and at its source are the Stoic "self-governance" before and after the AD and the German neo-liberalism governance after the World War Ⅱ.

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The Limits of Care: An Ethnographic Study of Dementia Care in Nursing Homes

WU Xinyue

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 162-186.

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This ethnographic study offers insights into the lifeworld and multiple experiences of individuals with dementia residing in nursing homes. Firstly, from the perspective of phenomenological sociology, the study delves into the "disruption of experiences" resulting from dementia, which fundamentally alters the existential situation of patients. This disruption manifests as a fracture of self-coherence and a dissociation of intersubjectivity. When entering a nursing home, patients are further detached from their previous social relationships and world of meaning. Secondly, the article explores how specific ensembles of knowledge and practice in nursing homes shape the dementia experience. Under the current care management system with ADL as its core classification framework, the operational significance of dementia as a category is to a large extent dismantled. However, the stigmatizing label "laonian chidai" (senile dementia) often appears in the daily symbolic interaction process, causing all kinds of discrimination and conflicts. The dilemma of cognitive impairment classification of nursing homes reveals the dialectic relationship between "normal" and "abnormal" in definition and operation. This in turn affects the personhood and living situation of people with dementia. Finally, this article focuses on the daily ethics of dementia care, selecting two typical care scenarios of demand response and physical restraint, to examine how caregivers respond to daily crises and adopt expedient practices. The study suggests that the special care relationship of dementia care provides us with a new perspective on personhood and intersubjectivity.

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The Changing Course of Chinese Sense of Social Fairness in the Transitional Period and Its Explanatory Factors

XU Yanhui, KONG Yizhou

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 213-242.

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The perception of social fairness is an individual's overall perception or judgment of the state of social equity. Based on the repeated cross-sectional data of the China General Social Survey from 2010 to 2018, this study provides a holistic analysis of the shifting trends of social fairness perception and their explanatory factors during the two major transition periods of China, namely, the past transition period of reform and opening up and the current transition period of diversified development. With the help of mathematical models such as log-linear models and multilevel age-period-cohort models, the following three major findings are observed. First, in the current transition period, the total social mobility rate and the upward mobility ratio have been rising, and people's perceptions on social equity show a upward trend of volatility; while in the historical transition period, with the establishment and continuous improvement of markets, the perceptions of fairness experienced a rapid decline, and then a rapid improvement. Second, the three factors of social structure, social psychology and cultural norms are neither mutually exclusive nor competitive in the changing process of social equity perceptions, but are intertwined and function in different ways. Among them, social structural factors such as intergenerational mobility are foundational to the changes in the perception of social equity, while subjective class mobility perceptions are the direct source of people's perceptions and cultural norms constitute a stable potential factor. Third, this study examines the status of social equity from the perspective of social stratification and mobility, and takes the occurrence of intergenerational mobility, and its direction and distance as key indicators to measure the objective equity status. It is found that social equity status and the sense of fairness are linked, but the moral concept on which the perception of fairness is based has changed with the transformation of society in specific historical periods. This study extends the research on social equity perceptions to the macro-process and dynamic analysis of social structural transformation and people's mentality transformation. It overcomes the relatively crude measurement of intergenerational mobility distance as well as the treatment of social equity perceptions as a static factor in previous studies. In this regard, it offers an important direction for future research to investigate deeper into the tension between subjective and objective equity and explore a new model of social stratification.

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Fluid Boundaries of Responsibility: The Business and Politics of Grassroots Government

PAN Tong

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 135-161.

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This article takes an "abnormal petition" incident as a case study to explore the changes in the responsibility boundary of grassroots governments and the emergence of relevant action strategies. The research finds that grassroots governments have a dual role orientation of "business department" and "political unit", and their respective behavioral logics are also different. The former suits for a rational bureaucracy, and its design of clear task boundaries causes the ambiguity of the responsibility boundaries of grassroots governments in practice, leaving institutional space for their risk avoidance strategies. The latter applies to the political integration, and its blurred task boundary design in fact forces grassroots governments to re-clarify their responsibility boundaries and enforce their sense of responsibility. Affected by the logic of the two systems, the responsibility boundary of grassroots governments exhibits the characteristic of "fluidity", and governments' behaviors have also shifted from "risk avoidance" to "risk taking". Rational bureaucracy and political integration determine the dual role orientation of "business-politics" of grassroots governments, which in turn affects the fluidity of the responsibility boundary. Therefore, changes of events in the governance context become the trigger mechanism. In this case study, the incident was initially just a homestead dispute. However, according to the logic of rational bureaucracy, the local government avoided the responsibility to resolve the dispute by diverting the case to the Bureau of Justice and the Bureau of Health. When the petitioner's appeal to the Bureaus failed, her journey of petitioning began. Since the incident has now transformed from an administrative incident to a petition case, the responsibility boundary of the local government has changed, and the political integration system began to play a major role. As a result, the local government takes on the responsibility of dealing with petition cases using tactics of appeasement, strict pressure, and downward responsibility transfer. This article constructed the phrase of "fluid responsibility boundary" and used it as an analytical framework, emphasizing the dual roles of grassroots governments and situational change in shaping their behavior. The study contributes to the dialogues and development of research on grassroots government responsibility.

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Homeless Orphan and Science as a Vocation: Ethos of Science in Max Weber's Thoughts

SUN Feiyu

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 54-83.

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Starting from the famous opinion of Leo Strauss on Weber, and based on works in the tradition of general Phenomenological Sociology, this paper tries to analyze Max Weber's thoughts on Science and Homelessness. Through an analysis of Weber's texts, this paper finds that, contrary to Strauss's assertion, in his sober analysis of the protestant in terms of the historical analysis of rationalization, Weber describes Calvinist Puritans as an image of homeless orphan. The meaningful structure within this image is similar to "schizophrenia", but it is understood by Weber as a relationship of innere Verwandtschaft. This image and its corresponding structure are further clarified in Weber's later comparative study on civilization between China and European civilization. Similarly, this homeless orphan image of protestant and the corresponding structure are also in his works on the methodology of social science, and become the required ethos of science, especially for sociology as he understood it. This "understanding" resonates with modern society, modern university system and the production of modern knowledge. It has its origin in its own civilization. Finally, this paper argues that Weber's understanding of science and vocation, reflected in his lecture on Science as a Vocation, has this image of homeless orphan and structure of affinity as its essential inner substance.From the comparative perspective of home and homeless, this paper argues that, in Weber's thoughts, there is an intrinsic affinity between the image of homeless orphan and science as a vocation. Studies on this affinity offer an important clue for us to understand Weber's thoughts and to reflect the subjectivity building of China's social science.

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Collective System and Household Production: A Re-Examination of Production Practice in the Period of Agricultural Collectivization

YAN Yanhua

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 111-134.

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This paper re-examines the production practices and their industrial consequences during the period of agricultural collectivization through the case study of a tea-producing village in Anxi. It is found that the social transformation during the collectivization period, on the one hand, led to the widespread "de-skilling" of traditional tea merchant families, that is, through the state's agribusiness transformation and redistribution of skills, the collective system broke the monopoly of production skills inherited within the core family and the family specialization. On the other hand, it brought about the "re-skilling" for the majority of community members, that is, through the "paternalistic" production arrangements of the production team leader, tea production skills were disseminated to a wider range of households. The positive impact of the collectivization system on the local tea industry was the result of the interaction between the logic of state governance and local traditions. As a part of the formal state power structure, the production team leaders in the collectivization period were able to use the power endowed by the state to transform the traditional way of family work, so that the corresponding production arrangements were in line with the interests of the collective to the greatest extent, and it ultimately enabled the smooth development of tea garden production. However, although the family production organization was formally abolished during the collectivization period, the logic of the family organization had continued to a certain extent in the actual production organization. The production team, especially the production team leaders' balancing role between the "public family" and the "small family" played the traditional role of family authority. The study points out that it is these important features of collectivization period-the "paternalistic" style leadership of the production team leaders and the household-based production and marketing arrangements spreading production and marketing skills to the majority of households in the community-that ultimately facilitated the development of the family industry and the local tea economy in the post-collectivization period.

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Rhetorical Duality in Western Democracy: Taking Weber and Arendt as Examples

SHEN Yao

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (3): 84-110.

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In discussing the rhetoric of democratic politics, both Weber and Arendt support their respective diagnoses of modern problems in comparison to ancient Western political thought. They each represent two typical positions in the face of rhetoric, and at the same time propose answers to the democratic dilemma in the West based on the context of their respective times. Weber's contribution lies in his identification of the relationship between political rhetoric and the comprehensive crisis of modern society, namely, political apathy and the absence of popular participation under a democratic bureaucracy. The two sides of rhetoric are revealed in Weber's discussion. On the one hand, rhetoric can operate in a top-down manner through leaders' incitement to the masses, and on the other hand rhetoric can also operate from the bottom up, serving as the basis for public discussion and dialogue. However, Weber's treatment of rhetoric as a means fails to connect it with legitimacy. Arendt, on the other hand, argues that modern capitalist society has obscured mankind exists as words and action since ancient Greece. Based on her reflection on Nazi politics, Arendt selected public opinion as her addition to the other side of rhetoric, that is, the formation of consensus. Arendt pays more attention to rhetoric as a bottom-up form of political organization, as well as to the revelation of the concrete subject by speech and its relation to the power of legitimacy. Both Weber's and Arendt's positions in the face of rhetoric have their own contemporary contexts and limitations, but both have made outstanding contributions to the subject. The last section of this paper aims to exhibit, using Habermas, a comprehensive stance that upholds Arendt's fundamental rhetorical standpoint, while also considering Weber's overarching analysis of contemporary society.

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Long-Term Employment Trajectories of Chinese Women after Their First Childbirth: A Sequence Analysis

YANG Yichun, YU Jia, XIE Yu

Chinese Journal of Sociology 2023, 43 (5): 167-203.

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Women's post-maternal employment status is an important factor contributing to gender inequality in labor market. Previous research mainly considered employment as a static and single event, lacking a dynamic life course perspective. Using the 2014 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data, this study applies sequence analysis for the first time to depict a period of twenty-one years of non-agricultural working women's employment trajectories before and after their first childbirth. We divide the sample born between 1940s to 1970s into different birth cohorts to cover three stages of labor market transformations in China:the early days of the PRC, the early stage of market reform and the mature stage of market reform. Results show six typical trajectories of women's post-maternal employment in China. They are:long-term regular employment (55.06%), early return to employment (8.69%), late return to employment (3.98%), self-employment or from employment to self-employment (19.78%), long-term unemployed (8.07%), and long-term informal employment (4.42%). Different employment trajectories reflect clearly the heterogeneity of female group characteristics. Our results also show that with the social changes, the complexity and diversity of Chinese women's employment trajectories have increased significantly, showing that more women frequently switch between multiple employment status. It can be seen from the trajectories of different cohorts that the proportion of women who are able to maintain full-time employment has significantly decreased, while the proportion of self-employed, part-time and non-employment trajectories have increased noticeably. In addition, human capital, institutional patronage, and shared childcare responsibility have significant positive effect on women's full-time employment. Nevertheless, with China's marketization, the protection provided by these factors have substantially weakened over cohorts.

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