Table of Content

20 May 2013, Volume 33 Issue 3

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Articles


The Reform and the Future of China’s Social Organization System

LI Peilin

2013, 33(3):  1-10. 

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A Sociologist’s View of Social Development in China: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities

ZHOU Xueguang

2013, 33(3):  11-17. 

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Some Ideas on How to Build Modern Social Institutions in China Quickly

WANG Ming | ZHANG Yanbing | MA Jianyin

2013, 33(3):  18-28. 

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For Public Interest: A Research Outline for Ideal Social Construction from an Economist

LU Ming

2013, 33(3):  29-38. 

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Return to Earthbound China: Reflections on Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) Studies

ZHOU Feizhou

2013, 33(3):  39-50. 

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During the 80’s and 90’s in the 20th century, Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) were the strongest force leading to China’s economic growth. The enterprises were unique in the sense of the structure of property rights. Some economists pointed out the “ambiguous” structure in TVEs because their property right or ownership belonged to village collectives or township governments but their operation was delegated to TVE managers. Based on the new classic economic theory, this kind of property structure is inefficient due to the separation of the inputs and returns. The success of TVEs thus has stirred up hot debates on the economic growth of “China Pattern,” with the key question being why an ambiguous property structure could have been so successful.There have been three categories of academic explanations. The first one is based on “industrial structural characteristics,” which argues that the success of TVEs was due to the differences between the “light” and “heavy” industries. There was a shortage of “light industry” products in contrast to the “heavy industry” products. TVEs took the market opportunities to make consumer products and reaped high returns with little competition. The second explanation focuses on the behaviors of local governments. The new fiscal contract system provided local governments with strong incentives to develop local TVEs. The third is a “historical explanation,” that is, the success of TVEs could be explained by the “path dependent” theory. In 1994, Martin Weitzman and Xu Chenggang proposed a new “cultural explanation” in their paper that the Chinese “corporate” culture could be regarded as an important factor that had positively affected the management of TVEs. In the current paper, I try to continue Weitzman and Xu’s arguments and respond to Qu Jingdong’s views in his paper of “Possession, Operation and Governance as Three Conceptual Dimensions of Town and Township Enterprises.” I believe that the nature of village culture was an important part of TVE operation, which could help us understand the success of Chinese TVEs.

Theory Building and Institutional Spirit: Some Thoughts Derived from “Possession, Operation, and Governance as Three Conceptual Dimensions of Town and Township Enterprises”

ZHAO Liwei

2013, 33(3):  51-64. 

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In social sciences, defining study targets, explaining issues, and predicting the future all rely upon conceptual paradigms or theoretical frames as reference, and furthermore, the accumulative development of any discipline reflects the progression of those paradigms and frames; it is anything but the simple collection of nonempirical data. In recent Chinese sociological research, Qu Jingdong’s paper of “Possession, Operation, and Governance as Three Conceptual Dimensions of Town and Township Enterprises” is one meaningful attempt in theory building based on the “China Experience.” Here, the researcher adopted the method of ideal type to construct a multidimensional conceptual framework around the key concepts of possession, operation, and governance in order to present and interpret the multidimensionality and the general meaning of town and township enterprises as a categorical phenomenon; and also, to bring to light the institutional spirit of the reform period. The general methodology that took in the interaction between the overall research perspective, conceptual frame and empirical questions, and the emphasis on the spiritual dimension of social phenomena as seen in his research not only represent his idea of “back to the classical social science” but is also enlightening to the advance of conceptualization and theorization in Chinese sociological research. In explaining some empirical questions, his research was an integrative and creative effort, demonstrating the possibility of applying the relevant concepts in classical social sciences to Chinese empirical questions and their valid power of explanation. Nonetheless, there are some issues that require discussion and improvement, for example, the general conceptual frame, especially the logical relations between the main concepts, is insufficiently described; the methodological distinction between the analytical and concrete levels is not always consistent; and the elaboration on the institutional spirit of town and township enterprises is not adequate.

Gender Differences in Anomia among China’s Rural Migrant Workers in the Context of Gender Imbalance

LI Weidong | LI Shuzhuo | Marcus W. Feldman

2013, 33(3):  65-88. 

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Most research findings regarding anomia agree that women in the Western society have higher levels of anomia than men. The social role theory has often been employed to explain the gender differences in psychological states, arguing that women’s poorer psychological wellbeing is primarily due to their segregated family roles that give little return values, and even if they participate in the sphere outside family, their public roles often involve conflict and tension with their family roles. Such a conclusion is derived from the research in Western industrialized settings. However, contemporary Chinese society is undergoing two major structural changes: gender imbalance and population migration, which may alter not only the social roles occupied by men and women but also their relative power in family. In such a social context, the current paper aims to explore whether there exist gender differences in anomia among rural migrant workers, and if there are, their determinant factors. The data for this study come from the “RuralUrban Migrants Study in District Y, X City, Fujian” in 2009. The sample surveyed were ruralurban migrants aged 16 years and older with agricultural hukou who had migrated to X City to work. In order to improve the representativeness of the sample, a loose quota sampling method was adopted, and the final sample had 1,507 participants. Multivariate linear regression analysis of the data has produced the following findings about the rural migrant workers: First, men have higher levels of anomia than women. Second, the unmarried have a higher level of anomia than the married, with the older unmarried being worse, but there is no gender difference in the influence of marital status on anomia. Third, education, career, migration time, employment and other instrumental social roles and characteristics related to supporting family have a significant influence on anomia only among men. Fourth, resourceoriented social participation has a significant influence on anomia only among men, but emotionoriented social participation has a significant influence on anomia only among women. Fifth, chronic diseases have a significant influence on anomia only among men.

Determinants of the Age of First Marriage: A Study Based on CGSS2006

WANG Peng | WU Yuxiao

2013, 33(3):  89-110. 

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With the data from “2006 Chinese Social Survey”(CGSS2006),this paper investigates the change trend in the age of first marriage and its socioeconomic origins using the event history analysis model. Education, occupation and family socioeconomic status are found to be significantly related to the age of first marriage, with considerable differences between men and women, and between urban and rural residential registration. First, higher education, in general, is associated with later marriage; more so for women than for men, with this effect being the strongest for the women in the rural areas. Second, among the men who have rural registration (hukou), those in professional occupations marry earlier than those with nonskilled, non managerial jobs. Third, in the urban population, the higher the parents’ education attainment is, the later their children get married for the first time but the number of siblings correlates with an earlier marriage. Lastly, regardless of hukou location (urban or rural), father’s managerial position, in contrast to having a skilled job, is associated with his child’s earlier marriage. Father’s managerial position is associated with his son’s younger age of first marriage, especially so if their hukou is in the rural areas. Taken together, these findings answer to the marriage hypothesis from the modernization theory, that is, an individual’s education, occupation and family socioeconomic status all significantly affect the age of first marriage; but in the rural areas where traditional characteristics are more prominent, existing differences in fathers’ occupations have a more substantial impact on their children’s age of first marriage. Therefore, age of first marriage is not only a matter of an individual’s choice, but also closely relates to macrolevel factors such as social stratification, the hukou system, and the urbanrural structure.

The Influence of Children’s Needs on Intergenerational Coresidence

XU Qi

2013, 33(3):  111-130. 

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Intergenerational coresidence of parents and married children is one of the most distinctive characteristics of traditional Chinese families. Whether this traditional living arrangement will change in the process of modernization has stimulated widespread interest of the academia. According to the classic modernization theory, modernization will push family taking up the modern family mode of the nuclear structure. However, many studies have found that, even in the most modernized urban areas in China, extended families still account for a large proportion, which significantly challenges the classic modernization theory. The existing literature suggests that the particular Chinese Confucian culture and the urgent needs of the support to elderly parents are the two primary reasons for the prevalence of extended families in urban China. Based on the data of the first wave of Chinese Family Panel Study in 2010, this paper finds that in addition to parents’ needs for eldercare, children’s needs are particularly important for coresidence. Young couples need to rely on their parents for monetary support, especially for housing; additionally, they need their parents to help with housework and childcare. This paper also finds that education expansion and population migration have undermined the foundation of Chinese extended family system. However, because of the strong needs from both parents and children, extended family still plays an irreplaceable role in contemporary urban China. Therefore, it is necessary for the extended family to survive in the near future.

How Do People Get Engaged in Civic Participation：A Case Study of the Citizen Activism in Rebuilding Enning Road, Guangzhou

HUANG Dongya

2013, 33(3):  131-158. 

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This paper discusses how citizens get engaged in networks for civic participation and what affects the initiation, continuity, and impact of an actual action. The case study of the citizens’ engagement in rebuilding Enning Road in Guangzhou found that virtual communities expanded people’s actual connections; Internet mobilization, owing to its broad connectedness, helped stimulate the initiation of public participation but the shared channel of this type of media lacked in power to start an actual action or to keep the momentum. The existing studies suggested that whether the public attention and discussion based on virtual communities could be transformed into sustainable and influential public participation in action depended upon whether the “issue” itself had its sustainability and also, upon whether the mobilizing “agent” was a rightsprotecting group that shared similar interests. The case study reported in this paper, however, found that the offline “liaison and mobilization mechanisms,” as well as their closely related characteristics, were significant factors, too. Connection and mobilization via interpersonal networks pushed virtual discussions into real actions and helped keeping the actions going on, while the open space of the city expanded the actual social and policy influences for such actual civic engagement. The distinction of different liaisons from mobilization mechanisms illustrated in this paper helps the explanation of the civic engagement in contemporary China from the “diachronic” and “differentiated participation” angles. The paper concludes that either interpersonal networking organizations being supplementary to the organization of social groups or the public space opened up by the city being supplementary to the closed nature of the structure of the political system itself is still quite limited in the civic engagement in China.

Binding Development and Metaphorical Politics：A Case Study of Pingba Qiang Village in Wenchuan EarthquakeStricken Area

XIN Yunxing

2013, 33(3):  159-183. 

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 Through the field study of the tourism development and postdisaster reconstruction process in Pingba Qiang village in Wenchuan earthquakestricken area, the current paper suggests that the social developmental style there is essentially “modern engineering” led by the government, which can be summarized as “binding development” that reflects some basic characteristics of the “China Model”. In the operating process of this developmental style, a series of events of power and discourse games occur in local society, and the relationships between different types of participants, especially those between the grassroots government and the people, undergo dramatic changes. The “development discourse” in the national mainstream ideology, while being utilized in clever operations, is transformed into capital for grassroots political games, producing a relatively new “version” of grassroots politics. This phenomenon is labeled “metaphorical politics”. There are many notable relations between binding development and metaphorical politics. As the macro political system’s derivatives in China, the former and its inherent characteristics provide a prerequisite condition for the emergence of the latter. At the same time, the latter reacts to the former through its unique operational logic, and furthermore, to some degree, has a “deconstructing” effect on it. Through these relations, we can detect some subtle changes and new noticeable trends of the grassroots political form in China. With people’s enhanced awareness of their rights, bettered conceptualization of independence, and refined political protest strategies, China’s rural political power relations are facing the possibility of new reconstruction, and binding development will encounter more challenges. Of course, the future prospects of these changes are still hard to be accurately predicted because they are closely related to the direction of China’s macro political reform.

Globalization and Field Spirit: McDonald’s Action Logics in the Urban Cultural Designs in East Asia

SHAO Yingping

2013, 33(3):  184-203. 

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Globalization does not necessarily lead to cultural homogenization. In the McDonaldization across the cities in East Asia, what has been spread globally is not complete homogenization of the American culture but its special localization experience resulting from the collision of the core of the American culture and the local cultural environments. McDonald’s follows a set of action logics in this particular East Asian cultural field. Its action procedure has led to consumers’ value recognition by fragmentized cultural infiltration strategies via regulations such as diet, consumption, fashion, and public service. Its substantial actions have brought in profound profit increases through superficial cultural designs that transfer not only marginal values but also marginal profits. McDonald’s takes the overall globalization as its action opportunity to swiftly quicken its McDonadization, not only in the sense of global consumption but also global production. In the overall process, the local culture, despite of its own growth, is in general being enveloped and assimilated by the global culture. The main thing we really need to focus on is McDonald’s skillful way of inviting the local society to be part of its superficial cultural designing rather than suppressing the local cultural consciousness and thus, the local cultural consciousness is gradually becoming cultural unconsciousness during such process. In order to inspire the local society to retrieve its cultural consciousness, the type of cultural consciousness based on the rural society should be questioned for its effectiveness and representativeness against the background of global urbanization. The urban cultural consciousness and city people should be paid more attention.

The State and the WorkingClass during the Industrial Restructuring of the StateOwned Enterprises in China: Structural Changes and Literature Review

LI Jinfeg

2013, 33(3):  204-241. 

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The relationship between the state and the workingclass has undergone three changes during the industrial restructuring of the stateowned enterprises(SOEs). First, the state is giving up its direct control over society with corporatism, transiting from being quasitotalitarian to fragmented authoritarian. Second, the workingclass, while breaking away from “the total institution”, is losing its status as the leading class protected by both the state and danwei (work unit). Third, the axis direction of the relationship between the state and the workingclass is shifting from being the primary factor in danwei to a logic based on capital. These three changes have been taking place in two processes: the pushing process of the SOEs toward an overall marketization and the withdrawing process of the SOEs from social responsibilities. All that, combined with the economic development, is the most striking feature of Chinese Authoritarianism, markedly different from any other powerful country. At the same time, economic development itself serves as a basis to extend Authoritarianism with legitimacy. The authoritarianism in China is currently in a fragmented state. The statecapitalworking class structure formed in such a context has a big problem of labor being severely exploited by capital. What we need to do is step up the legal system construction in the course of the capitalization of the SOEs, protect workers’ rights as citizens by strengthening organizational construction to fight for their industrial citizenship when SOEs are retreating completely from the social responsibility. At present when the state and capital are in coalition, the function of the legal system in protecting workers’ rights and helping workers forming their organizations for their rights is usually limited in many areas. The extent to which workers’ general rights as citizens can be protected and how much of their industrial citizenship rights can be obtained depend on the stance of the state. Only when the state maintains some distance from the working mass as well as from capital can workers’ rights be protected.