Table of Content

20 July 2022, Volume 42 Issue 4

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Adventure and Modernity:The Core of Adventure and Its Modernity Implication in Simmel's Thoughts

PAN Lixia

2022, 42(4):  1-30. 

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For too long,the theme of adventure in Simmel's writings has not received enough attention.Simmel defines adventure primarily from the formal level,emphasising the basic characteristics of adventure that dramatically leaps out of life and eventually returns to life.From this definition of adventure,Simmel's cultural philosophy and philosophy of life have a distinct sense of adventure.Simmel's so-called culture is actually an adventure of spiritual life.Spiritual life produces its own form of objects that is self-contained,leaping out of the flow of life.However,the development of the objects may promote the perfection of spiritual life and the reintegration between the objects and spiritual life.Starting from itself and returning to itself,the spiritual life thus realizes its cultural path.The aggravation of cultural tragedy in modern society may cause the objective forms that have detached from the flow of spiritual life to exist completely independently of spiritual life and unable to return to the stream of life,thus interrupting the adventure of spiritual life.Simmel solved this dilemma by turning to the concept of absolute life in his late time.The essence of absolute life is self-transcendence.The contradiction between relative life and form is precisely the way absolute life exists,constantly generating contradictions and constantly breaking the existing boundaries to return to the unity of life,so that life is renewed to a more abundant state.In this way,the adventure of life will no longer be blocked.The essence and existential mode of absolute life of self-transcendence is in fact a continuous adventure.Simmel's approach to research and lifestyle is equally adventurous.This adventurous core in Simmel's thought and his life picture makes him the first theorist of modernity in the Baudelaire's sense and the enlightener with the attitude of modernity in the Foucault's sense.

Lévi-Strauss'Maison as an Institution:A Reappraisal and Redirection

CHEN Bo

2022, 42(4):  31-73. 

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This paper is divided into nine parts.After briefly reviewing the relevant academic research in Chinese writing,as well as the static stereotypes held by the Chinese and foreign academic circles on Lévi-Strauss'structuralism,the first part of the paper discusses the background of the concept of maison proposed by Lévi-Strauss in the study of kinship system,that is,the shared attention,exploration and theoretical reflection in the West over the widely existed non-matriarchal-non-patrilineal heirs/succession phenomenon in the world.The second part examines Lévi-Strauss'thoughts on the basic as well as complex structure of kinship system in his The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949),revealing that his ideas about maison had already appeared amongst his writing,especially about the various "deviations" of the basic structure of kinship caused by political-economic interests.The third part introduces the formulation of the concept of maison and its Chinese translation.The fourth part discusses the misinterpretation in English language of Lévi-Strauss'phrase"société à maisons,"and how from it the Chinese translation "家屋社会" was derived.It suggests that "maison" should be understood and translated as "家产亲属制" in Chinese.The fifth part presents a translation of the critical term of "personne morale" in Lévi-Strauss'definition of maison as "合众体" in Chinese,the way it should be interpreted for it is the key to the concept of maison and the starting point for further studies of the maison in stitution.In view of the widely accepted misinterpretation of maison among mainstream Chinese and Western scholars,the sixth part re-examines Lévi-Strauss'basic research on the kinship system and his breakthrough contribution to the theory.The seventh part examines the four scholarly traditions that were impacted by Lévi-Strauss'maison,namely the French school,the Austronesian school led by the Dutch structuralist van Wouden,and the Anglo-American postmodern school promoted by British and American anthropologists out of their dissatisfaction with the French school,and the American archaeologic school.The eighth part introduces author's own follow-up study on how to use the concept of maison to re-examine Chinese history and practices in various locations,with personne morale as the key analytic notion.The last part is a concluding remark that summarises the significant contribution of maison to Lévi-Strauss'structuralism and its future implications.

The Making of Social Individuals:John Dewey's Child Study and its Meanings for Social Theory

YANG Yong, XIAO Yonghong

2022, 42(4):  74-103. 

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This paper focuses on Dewey's action education based on his study of children to showcase the concrete understanding of individualism in American pragmatism.Among the many social problems encountered in the American Gilded Age,the isolated individualism most epitomises the action dilemma of modern Americans,exacerbating the moral crisis and social divide of American society.The primary goal of Dewey's child research and progressive education reform at that time was to better understand the action structure and personality form of modern individuals,so as to overcome the action problem caused by isolated individualism.Dewey first classified "children" in the educational sense into four stages of development:early infancy,late infancy,childhood,and adolescence.By using the action mechanism of "stimulus-response",Dewey hoped to combine natural forces and social consciousness at the same time,and ultimately shape a "social individual" in the process of action education.The social individual is represented as a complete state of action,which on the one hand retains the sacredness derived from the nature,and on the other hand continuously absorbs the civilizational traditions from society.Dewey believed that only such a modern individual with full action power could truly cope with the challenges of the modern world in terms of both human mind and society.By transforming isolated individuals into social individuals,Dewey attempted to find answers to the social problems of the Gilded Age through educational reforms.Moreover,the theoretical conception of "social individual" and the corresponding educational practices also profoundly influenced the theoretical development and empirical research orientation of the early American sociology.This study helps us further understand the early ideological foundation of American sociology and reflect on our current situation.

Experiencing Authenticity:The Sociability and Double Life of Migrant Youth in Beijing

ZHOU Zepeng, XIAO Suowei

2022, 42(4):  104-133. 

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Youth space,a public space established by urban youth to facilitate conversations and spiritual exchanges,has proliferated in China since 2012.Through the participatory observation of Youth Space A and in-depth interviews with 20 participants,this article examines the double life experienced by middle-class migrant youth in Beijing under the institutionalized individualization.It argues that the highly competitive institutional environment,with the labor market as its core,has systematically pressured the migrant youth into a utilitarian institutionalized life model.Under the circumstance,young migrants,on the one hand,are"striving individuals "in order to adapt;on the other hand,they are deeply suspicious and despondent,struggling between institutional dependency and the need for autonomy.Constructing social interaction in youth space becomes their way of exploring their" authentic selves ".In Youth Space A,migrant youths build transient" pure relationships "between strangers and participate in public life through noncompetitive relations and highly spiritual conversations over topics on daily life reflections,intellectual engagement,and public concerns.In so doing,they constitute an" authentic self "that enables them to reveal their true inner selves and resist social constrains.However,the sociability in the youth space is set upon the premise of" anti-daily-life"that precludes its integration into everyday action,and is thus incapable of changing the established structure of daily life.In fact,to certain degree,it is confined by the logic of institutionalized life such as utility and instrumentality,thus reducing the self authenticity to a tangled,fragile,and place-specific experience for migrant youth.This study reflects on the utilitarian-oriented paradigm o "f striving individual" in the discussion of the individualization of the Chinese society,and of the Chinese youth in particular.It helps to the understanding of the dual connotation of institutionalized individualization.In addition,by analyzing the relationship between public life and the authentic self,it sheds light on the issue of the publicity dilemma and its Chinese specificity in the process of individualization.

Involuntary Memory:Proust's Thought on the Sociality of Individual Memory

LIU Yaqiu

2022, 42(4):  134-160. 

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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the sociality of Proust's individual memory focusing on "involuntary memory" ,as well as his theory on the relationship between society and individuals and its implications for sociological paradigms. "Sociality" comes from the perspective provided by Halbwach's theory of collective memory,a dimension that is also included in Proust's theory of memory,reflected typically in Proust's recollection of his grandmother.But Proust's memory theory does not stop there.This is manifested in the fact that under the tradition of Durkheim,Halbwach's theory of memory cannot describe in depth the process of how individuals create society.Nevertheless,the social image presented in Proust's memory theory is a blending of society and individual,including not just the duality of social restriction and guidance,but also the active adaptation and creation of individuals.This means that society is inherent in the individual,and the individual is not a purely psychological entity.The creation of the individual is inseparable from the social environment.From this standpoint of subject-object fusion,we can regard Proust's social image not just as duality but with multiple or even infinite possibilities.Society is a product materialised in the process of individual creation.In this process,society presents a rich image,and the infinite possibilities of society are contained in the process of individual creation.In Proust's theory of "involuntary memory",lifeness and sociality are two dimensions that exist at the same time,however,in any case,lifeness is the fundamental and it is Proust's first trust.He trusts more emotion and impression.Proust explains what "life essentials" are and how to be"life essentials"from the perspective of memory.In contrast,Halbwach takes sociality as his focus,arguing that individual memories with great life significance are constructed and determined by society.

Marketization Reform and Corruption:An Empirical Analysis Based on Micro-case Data

CHEN Shuo

2022, 42(4):  161-182. 

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Corruption not only hinders economic development but also jeopardises the quality of government governance.The literature on corruption of countries in transition argues that the lack of market competition is an important cause of frequent corruption,which means that market-oriented reforms and the role of the market rather the power in resource allocation can curb corruption to a great extent.However,since the market reform in China,corruption has shown an upward tendency.This has led the public as well as some scholars believe that marketization is the cause of corruption and thus question its legitimacy.Based on the examination of 3 843 corruption cases from 1993 to 2013,this paper concludes that half-hearted incomplete market reforms not only increase the probability but also the severity of corruption.However,once the reform programs ended,the corruption activities were also significantly reduced.A series of heterogeneity and placebo tests provide further support to this conclusion.The above findings imply that the institutional root of corruption in the process of marketisation lies in incomplete or half-hearted reforms rather than marketisation itself.Therefore,only by adhering to market-oriented reforms can we gradually eliminate the ground for rent-seeking and thus effectively curb corruption.The conclusion of this paper provides an empirical basis for the connection between deepening marketization reforms and the anti-corruption struggle since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Who Dominates?Multiple Constructions of Women's Subjective Class Identity and Their Cohort Dynamics in Transitional China

WANG Peng, GAN Yiqing

2022, 42(4):  183-213. 

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How women construct their subjective class identity has attracted extensive attention.However,the discussion of the multiple constructed model of women's class identity in existing studies lacks of depth,nor is there an analysis of the generational changes of the model.This study aims to answer two important questions against the backdrop of a society in transition:first,which is the most dominant factor in shaping married women's subjective class identity,the class of their own,their husbands',or their fathers'?Answers to this question reveal the impacts of assortative mating and intergenerational mobility.Second,how does the multiple construction pattern change across birth cohorts?The cohort dynamics help reflect the evolution of gender roles and family values in China.Using the pooled data from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2010-2017 and the Diagonal Reference Models,our study finds that in general Chinese married women tend to construct their own class identity based on the objective class of their husbands,but this trend is reversed in the younger cohorts.Fathers'objective class status carries roughly the same weight as women's own,but its impact becomes moderately stronger in younger cohorts.Taken together,the above findings reveal a special pathway of family modernization in transitional China,that is,married women,although increasingly independent of their spouses,still maintain closely connected with their natal families.

Modern Transition of Traditional Township Covenants ("Xiang Yue"):A Study of Yang Kaidao's Thoughts of "Xiang Yue" and Autonomy

DI Jinhua, HOU Dongyi

2022, 42(4):  214-242. 

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During the Republic of China,some Chinese sociologists began to shift to the"internal"perspective of history/tradition and internal structure after a period of studying Chinese society from the"external "perspective as its disciplinary approach.This" inward-turned "change makes it necessary for contemporary sociologists to reinterpret their research texts in conjunction with the social history in which these sociologists live.This paper takes Yang Kaidao's study of" Xiang Yue "(乡约) as the starting point to explore how he transformed traditional Chinese" Xiang Yue "culture into modern governance resources in response to the democratic demands of China in a period of modern transition.It divides the concept of" Xiang Yue"into two parts of "Xiang" (township) and "Yue" (covenants). "Xiang" can be understood as a governance unit,and "Yue" as governance rules.The evolutionary process of "Xiang" and "Yue" in Chinese history was examined as well as the practice of local autonomy during the time of the Republic of China since Yang hoped his research would provide guidance to such autonomy.It also analyzes Yang's thinking on the basic units and norms of local autonomy,and its ideological and social basis.Yang Kaidao advocated the spirit of democratic autonomy in the traditional "Xiang Yue",but he did not blindly exclude the role of official rule,instead he argued for its power to be used as an institutional guarantee.Even though the spirit of enlightenment contained in the traditional "Xiang Yue" can be seen as somewhat interconnected with the imported spirit of democratic autonomy,it is quite difficult to bridge the two in actuality because of the discrepancies between the"group views "of China and the West.Governance units should also be coordinated with historical traditions,local folk customs and governance tasks.In addition to institutional norms,the guiding role of political leaders is also indispensable in grass-roots governance.Through the analysis of Yang Kaidao's" Xiang Yue,"this paper has explored a research path that integrates interpretation of academic history with the analysis of social history as a way to understand how an academic concept comes into existence.