Table of Content

20 November 2023, Volume 43 Issue 6

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“Family World”: Linguistic Forms of Religious Life along the Dianchi Lake

ZHU Xiaoyang

2023, 43(6):  1-25. 

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This paper discusses the language forms in the religious life of grassroots society from the perspective of "everyday language". The research question arises from the author's distant observation of anthropological studies of religion as well as the field data gained from listening to the discourses of daily religious life. This paper argues that until recent anthropological studies of religion have not touched on one dimension related to religion/faith, that is, religion and faith from the perspective of everyday language discourse. What we often encounter in the field is the unity of "talking and doing" rather than just "doing" religion. Although the perspective of "doing religion" also includes "talking", the "talking" in this article refers to "words and actions" and "words and things" related to realism of everyday language. Research based on the perspective of daily language not only relies on long-term field observations, but also requires contemporary audio and video technology as a means of measurement (mapping).
This study finds that local dialects create a differentiated life world of family members, relatives, and fellow villagers, referred here as "家人世界"(Jiaren shijie, family world) of people-ghosts-things woven by daily language. "Family world" does not refer to the actual existence of kinship, but only a conceptual or representational understanding of the effects of speech in daily interactions. The paper does not assert that the "family world" is purely constructed, or formed by consensus, as some pragmatists suggest, but views the concept as occurring in the context of certain forms of life from the perspective of everyday language realism. It is of great significance to discuss discourses in religious life from the perspective of daily language, that is, to avoid treating the "family world" in the context of dialects (Chinese) as a synonym in the content of cross-linguistic societies. In short, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of understanding the "家人世界" from the perspective of everyday language.

Integration of Family and Business: An Alternative Urbanization Model of Rural Migrants

AO Yaxuan, CHEN Qi

2023, 43(6):  26-53. 

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In the context of urbanization, how rural migrants integrate into the city and achieve identity change remains a key issue. This paper finds that in addition to the Relationship-Enclaves Pattern and the Individual-Family Separation Pattern, there is also a family and business integration urbanisation model of rural migrants, that is, using self-employment to earn a living in urban space and achieve the goal of staying together and developing as a family in the city. This study is based on an analysis of 44 small family business cases in N community of W city. It finds that family labor, dwelling size and family networks are all conducive to business, and the advantages of family and business integration model are also embedded in the different stages of family reproduction, enhancing reproduction and opportunities for the next generation to acquire urban residency. This paper suggests that the intergenerational relay and family values contained in the Family and Business Integration Model serve as a common mechanism of rural migrant's urbanization, underlining the value foundation of family as a whole and its practical significance in urban space. Thus, family and business integration constitutes a vital alternative urbanization model for rural migrants. It is not an evolutionary relationship in which one practice model replaces another, rather multiple models coexist under different circumstances. Nor is it one trend overtakes another, rather different groups seek the optimal settlement in a semi-open and semi-closed institutional environment. Therefore, this paper emphasizes the significance of family and business integration as one of many rural migrants' urbanization approaches and its discussion helps a better understanding of the urbanization of rural migrants in China.

Grandparents' Authoritative Resources and Intergenerational Coparenting Relationship in Chinese Urban Families: Differences between Maternal and Paternal Grandparents

CHEN Jia, DU Ping

2023, 43(6):  54-78. 

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In a social structure where traditional familism and individualization coexist, the intergenerational coparenting relationship in Chinese urban families shows complexity and ambivalent characteristics. As major actors in intergenerational coparenting, grandparents shape coparenting relationship through daily interactions, but the dynamics mechanism of the impact has not been fully examined. This study examines the impact of grandparents' authoritative resources at the economic, ethical, and psychological levels on different dimensions of intergenerational coparenting relationships. In addition, it explores the moderating effect of distinct intergenerational coparenting dyads on this influence. This study used the convenience sampling approach. The samples were taken from intergenerational coparenting families in Shanghai and Tianjin and analysed using multivariate linear regression model. The results show that grandparents' psychological control over parents is negatively associated with intergenerational coparenting relationships. In contrast, authoritative resources at the economic and ethical level only have positive associations with some specific dimensions of intergenerational coparenting relationships. Compared with mother-in-law and daughter-in-law coparenting, the relationship in mother and daughter coparenting combination is generally more positive. In different coparenting combinations, the impact of grandparents' authoritative resources on intergenerational coparenting relationships varies and shows a certain degree of complexity. Therefore, to improve cooperation and intimacy in intergenerational coparenting, grandparents need to develop authoritative resources with more cultural inclusiveness, and negotiate with parents over the balance between cultural tradition and individualized lifestyle.

Philology of Chinese Sociology: A Study of Marcel Granet's Early Works

ZHAO Bingxiang

2023, 43(6):  79-124. 

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This paper examines Marcel Granet's methodology in the study of classical Chinese literature, customs and etiquette. Granet's first book Festivals and Songs in Ancient China has a decisive significance for all his subsequent works. Philology formed an important part of Granet's book due to his training under Emmanuel-èdouard Chavannes and Antoine Meillet. However, the approach was adapted sociologically. First, Granet described the social morphology of The Book of Songs, such as the existence of lexicon and syntax in various texts, and summarised their formulae, themes, and corresponding social facts. Second, from these cross-text appropriations and transpositions, he revealed important social systems such as human geography (mountains, rivers, etc.), social relationships of couples, brothers and friends, etc., and political relationships such as monarchs, ministers and comrades-in-arms. Third, on this base, Granet explored the overall principles of Chinese civilization, for instance, the foremost principle of yin and yang and its specific manifestations. To complete these analysises, Granet proposed the concept of "la période assez longue". Within this historical framework, Granet's textual analysis of The Book of Songs was divided into multiple levels, describing historical figures and events, social institutions and spiritual structures respectively, thus presenting an overall history of changes in systems, mentality, and morals. This social and spiritual morphology laid the foundation for the rise of structural anthropology. In sum, Granet inherited the legacies from both Chinese and European philology, and expanded it through sociology. As a sinologist with historical and sociological mind, Marcel Granet's methodology continues to offer us an important reference value for understanding the characteristics of Chinese civilization.

Strange as a Form of Socialization: A Revisit to Georg Simmel's Stranger Theory

CHEN Xiabing

2023, 43(6):  125-152. 

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Georg Simmel's essay The Stranger has inspired a variety of sociological studies, especially as a classic example to dissect Simmel's overall thought, and as a theoretical foundation for the development of the sociology of stranger, spatial sociology and other topics. However, there are few studies that focus on the concept of stranger itself and place it strictly under the form of socialisation advocated by Simmel. This paper aims to revisit the comprehensive connotation of the Stranger starting from Simmel's sociological setting and his cultural outlook. The Stranger, as a form, transcends individual experience and emerges as a distinct relationship formed within social interactions between subjects. But its own existence and development require the support of three a priori conditions, which run through all social levels from the micro to the macro, and ultimately form a comprehensive picture of savoir as a cultural carrier in social life. Within the framework of pure sociology, the three a priori conditions of the stranger form are expressed in the social space, existed also in Simmel's view of culture, as an objective culture constructed through interactions among individuals who are non-specific subjects. These prerequisites, however, can not be expressible in the stranger form alone. This paper attempts to describe them using the concept of Strangeness and construct a relational network within the social space factors discussed by Simmel. More crucially, Stranger and Strangeness do not exist separately, nor are they mechanical structural combinations. They ultimately need to be organically interconnected within a related yet more integrated form of socialization, which this paper refers to as the form of Strange. Only in so doing can the individual transcendence under the form of Stranger be fully understood and experienced.

Understanding Based on Lived Experience: Dilthey's Concept of Verstehen Revisited from the Perspective of Sociological Methodology

MA Zhiqian

2023, 43(6):  153-180. 

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This paper investigates how Dilthey's concept of Verstehen deals with the problems of inter-subjectivity from the perspective of sociological methodology. For Dilthey, everything in our daily life carries and conveys a certain spiritual meaning-what he called objective spirit. Neither self nor others are isolated or enclosed in themselves, but are nexus formed in participation in these common spiritual contents in the external world. Therefore, Dilthey argued that understanding others is not just by speculating others' motives, but also constructing an objective spiritual system. It is closely related to the understanding of oneself as the two are based on the lived experience-expression-understanding nexus, meaning understanding the lived experience through its expression in the world. On this basis, this paper further discusses the difference between Dilthey and Weber. In the face of the conflict between life and science, Weber followed the path of Rickert's Kuturwissenschaften, keeping a distance from the reality of life in order to maintain the objective validity of science. Thus, Weber's concept of Verstehen adopts an ideal-type approach with rational rules as the core. Dilthey also believed that the grasp of life experience was fraught with difficulties, however, it does not mean there should be an absolute distinction between scientific concepts and reality of life. For him, Geisteswissenschaften need to be rebuilt based on life. Dilthey attempted to apply the concept of lived experience with originality and completeness to break down the binary opposition between self and others, internal and external, and to restore the connection between the understanding of oneself and others, of individuals and greater spiritual nexus.

Between Procedure and Efficiency: A Study on the Multi-Rule Operation of Local Governments

LIAN Hong

2023, 43(6):  181-208. 

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This paper provides an organisational analysis of governance by taking the rule practice in government construction projects as a case study. The study finds that in recent years, there have been a series of changes in the institutional environment, including a shift from focusing on efficiency to pursuing both efficiency and procedures, resulting in an increase of regulations and protocols in decision-making processes. These changes have to a great extent changed the traditional characteristics of "weak regulations and strong execution" and have formed a structural feature of "strong regulations and slow implementation", affecting the speed of task completion in local governments. Under the performance pressure of economic development, local governments have made full use of rules by meeting minutes and verbal commands within the established legal framework to soften procedural constraints for more efficient operations of local governments through simplifying processing, loosening prerequisites and supplementing secondary rules. Nevertheless, this multi-rule operation may induce three potential organisational tensions:the learning substitution of multiple rules, the recognitive conflicts of multiple rules, and the inherent tensions among bureaucratic personalities. Overall, the multi-rule operation is the product of changes in the institutional environment and the result of balancing the relationship between "tiao" (条, refers to the vertical line of authority over a particular sector) and "kuai" (块, refers to the horizontal line of authority over a particular locality) matrix of the unique Chinese bureaucratic system. This study sheds light on the flexible rules based on government meeting minutes and approvals, filling the gap in understanding the internal rule operations within Chinese bureaucracy.

Gender Differentiation in the STEM Field of China: A Socio-Categorical Perspective

CHEN Yanbing

2023, 43(6):  209-242. 

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This study uses the data of CGSS2018 and CGSS2021 to construct two variables of "STEM education" and "STEM occupation" in an attempt to analyze gender differentiation in different stages of STEM in China. The findings indicate that the gender classification system does not play a dominant role at each stage, and women with professional education in STEM have a commanding role in the labor market. In terms of educational attainment, women with higher education are more inclined to pursue non-STEM education, and this disparity has remained unaltered despite the increase in college enrolment. Among those with STEM education, women are more likely to drop out of the labor force, but women who remain in the labor force are more likely than men to pursue STEM careers. The impact of marriage and childbearing is mainly reflected in pushing women with STEM education out of the labor market, however, it does not affect the difference between genders in choosing STEM or non-STEM occupations. In terms of income, the gender income gap in STEM occupations is larger than that in non-STEM occupations; as the income level rises, the disparity between women and men in STEM occupations becomes more pronounced. Only women who are least likely to pursue STEM occupations can actually reap the benefits of such careers. The gender classification model in the STEM field is not a model of durably inequality reproduction. It is rather intricately linked to a multidimensional classification system and is influenced by context and subjectivity. The findings of this research suggest that while social stratification is prevalent, there exist fields where the emulation mechanism may not operate effectively. The subjectivity of individuals has opportunity to resist structural disadvantages and that one classification system may either weaken or strengthen another classification system.