Table of Content

20 July 2016, Volume 36 Issue 4

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“Bringing Back Revolution”: Expanding a New Vision of Sociology

YING Xing

2016, 36(4):  1-39. 

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Inspired by the works of Max Weber, Chen Yinke and others, this paper discusses the sociological inquiry of the Chinese revolution and its analysis and methodology in an attempt to bring back revolution, a classical sociological subject, to the field of Chinese sociology. Reflecting on some of the quandaries in the field, this study uses a new research approach that applies “sociological imagination” and empirical methods to gain deeper understanding of the unique political culture of the CCP and its profound historical influence. The discussion focuses on issues such as class lines, democratic centralism and mass line. This approach requires a good grasp of western modernity theory and communism, and the evolution of the Chinese revolution. It entails a systematic collection of historical data as well as a comprehension of the relationship between international origins and domestic roots, the relationship among the three contemporary Chinese revolutions of the 1911 Revolution, the Nationalist Revolution and the Communist Revolution, and the relationship of the political line, organizational line and working line adopted by the CCP. It is emphasized that a holistic historical approach should be applied to local events with the benefit of researches in political, social and intellectual history. Sociologists should avoid presumptions based on their own belief, recognize the complexity of the subject and uphold what Max Weber called academic ethics of “intellectual integrity.”

Quantification of Social Class in the Chinese Communist Land Reform: “The School of Counting” in Communist Party's Land Revolution

MENG Qingyan

2016, 36(4):  40-75. 

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The Land Survey Movement (chatian yundong) led by the CCP in 1933 incorporated for the first time quantified measurements into land reform. It became an established practice in the newly liberated areas after 1946 as well as for the nationwide land reform after the 1949 Liberation. The existing research on land reform paid little attention to this important quantification method of social class used to define rural social classes. Even those who did pay attention are mostly interested in the policy side of the practice. This study focuses on the architect of this quantification method——Wang Guanlan. Through historical archives, memoirs, and journal articles and documents, Wang's personal background, his education and involvement in the communist revolution are thoroughly examined to reach an accurate understanding of the person and the practice he was responsible for. In so doing, we gain some insights to the “technocrats” in the CCP during that period and their pragmatism, and how the CCP turned a theoretical and ideological concept of “class” into an applicable measurement to define rural classes and the limitation associated with such a practice.

Gender Difference in Scientific Productivity: An Explanation from the Perspective of Social Network Analysis

ZHU Yi'na, HE Guangxi

2016, 36(4):  76-102. 

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The issue of gender difference in scientific productivity has long been an important topic in the sociology of science as it reflects the gender inequality in science job market as well as status and income stratification between male and female scientists. The data in this study is drawn from the General Survey of Science Researchers and Technicians in Beijing in 2013 as well as a sample survey of university researchers. The paper explores how social networks among scientists act as an important structural factor contributing to the gender inequality in scientific productivity. Scientific productivity in this study is measured by the number of publications in SCI/EI.
Our finding first supports the general observation by other scholars that female scientists' networks tend to be smaller, members less prestigious and have fewer connection with industries, governments and domestic or foreign research institutes, than their male counterpart. Second, the primary network contributor to the gender differences in research productivity seems to be the lack of connection with domestic R & D institutes, foreign researchers and industries, not the size of the networks or connection with the government. This weakness affects female scientists' opportunity to obtain valuable information and funding. Third, the overall social network return on productivity is lower for female scientists than for male scientists, nevertheless, this gender difference seems to be less significant than what is observed in the broad labor market. Among the variables examined, the connection to industries and businesses shows the most noticeable gender difference for its impact on research productivity.

Caught between Ideal and Reality:A Study on Occupational Burnout among Legal Professionals under the Rule by Law Reform in China

BI Xiangyang

2016, 36(4):  103-132. 

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This paper analyzes job burnout of legal professionals under the rule by law reform in China and its possible causes. Social cognitive theory, including cognitive dissonance, expectancy theory and social comparison theory, provides the analytic framework for this study. The conclusion reveals a high level job burnout among the legal professionals in China. Further analysis indicates that one's commitment to the rule by law, confidence about the reform, and difficulties experienced at daily work are influential factors affecting his/her job stress levels. Importantly, the interaction coefficients between these variables are statistically significant, clearly demonstrating that the discrepancy between expectation and disappointing reality is one of the root causes of job burnout in legal profession. The discrepancy causes cognitive dissonance and psychological imbalance. At theoretical level, this finding opens a new way of examining a particular occupational burnout. It shows that under the rule by law reform, the Chinese legal workers exhibit cognitive discord between ideal and reality, which can constitute a micro-political psychological basis of organizational change as speculated by Neo-institutionalism and in turn reveals some insights for us to understand the reform process within the bureaucratic system.

Perception of Income Fairness:A Sociological New Institutionalist Explanation

LIU Xin, HU Anning

2016, 36(4):  133-156. 

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Drawing on the concepts of embeddedness and legitimacy, this study fuses the two theories of primary ideology and self-evaluation on social justice to suggest a new institutionalist explanation of distributive fairness. We argue that people's belief of income fairness is decided by whether one's subjective socioeconomic status agrees with the social consensus. If the self-perceived status is lower than what is by the social consensus, one is likely to feel income unfairness. If the perception is consistent with, or even amounts to a higher status than what is by the social consensus, then one tends to believe income fairness. In other words, people whose subjective socioeconomic status is lower than their occupational prestige are more likely to see their income as unfair than people who have the two harmonized. The results of statistical analysis of the CGSS2006 strongly support our argument. It shows that the proposed theoretical explanation does a better job than the self-interest rational choice theory to explain why people, especially low socioeconomic status members, still view their income to be fair.

Wealthier and Happier? A Cross-Sectional Time-series Analysis of Easterlin Paradox in China (2003—2013)

WU Hania

2016, 36(4):  157-185. 

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Forty years ago, economist Richard Easterlin proposed the famous “Easterlin Paradox”: within a short period of time, (both individual and national) wealth is positively correlated with happiness;while in the long run, economic growth has no significant impact on general happiness.Subsequent studies observed empirical inconsistencies when applying time-series analysis to examine the long-term relationship between economic growth and happiness. Therefore, time-series evidence have become the focal point to verify the Easterlin Paradox. China's economic boom has brought research interest in relationship between wealth and happiness, yet mostly are on short-term effects. Little effort has been made to provide the core evidence on Easterlin Paradox by analyzing time-series data, a gap this study seeks to fill in.Cross-sectional time-series data, collected from 2003 to 2013 nationwide in China, are used in this study for both short-term and long-term analyses. Major findings support the proposition of the Easterlin Paradox: (1) significant positive correlation is observed between either household income or provincial GRP per capita and happiness, while (2) no significant correlation is observed between the rapid economic growth and the change of general happiness over the ten years from 2003 to 2013. Possible mechanisms are discussed, including but not limited to rising income inequality, increasing urbanization, growing migrant population and degradation of environment.

A Class Analysis of Taiwan under Japanese Colonial Occupation

LI Shuanglong, LIN Thung-hong

2016, 36(4):  186-211. 

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The existing empirical studies on class structure and social mobility have centered on advanced Western capitalist nations and post-socialist countries. Little has been done about colonialized societies under imperialist occupation. This study draws data from the newly created Colonial Taiwan Household Registration Database to examine the class structure and social mobility of Taiwanese society under Japan's imperialist rule. Occupation categories were recoded under the EGP class schema and the multinomial logistic regression model was employed to estimate the odds ratio of class mobility. The study finds that the longer the Japanese occupation, the more proletarian the population had become. There was a dramatic decline of Taiwanese industrial ownership and self-employment during, the occupation. After the 1920s the rural population decline gradually stabilized. Because urban land owners continued the tradition of partitioning out land to married children, there was a “reverse population flow” from urban to rural. In contrast, rural farmers stood little chance to leave countryside for urban employment. Our study contributes to the understanding of social mobility in Taiwan during Japan's occupation as well as the class inequality in a colonized society.

The Creation of “Juvenile” and Its Demise: A Sociological Inquiry on U.S. and Japan's Juvenile Justice

XIAO Shihao

2016, 36(4):  212-240. 

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This study attempts to expose the socio-historical mechanism that gave birth to the concept of juvenile and the juvenile justice system in America and Japan. It points out that both are social constructs that are historically and culturally specific. The emergence of writing culture began the distinction between child and adult. Industrialization, urbanization and nuclear family structure have brought a new conceptualization of childhood. This modern idea of childhood as a special development stage distinctive from the adult world became the base for the conception of juvenile and the modern juvenile justice system. However, the new social media environment and the increasingly individualistic nature of western societies have transformed yet again not only childhood itself but the idea of childhood as well, leading to the dissolution of “juvenile” and the adultification of the juvenile justice system in America and Japan. The Chinese juvenile justice system is still in its infancy, largely a carbon copy of Western practices. Law makers in China should not blindly copy foreign systems without questioning their validity. Instead, they should reassess the system, give the Chinese reality a thoughtful examination and formulate realistic laws in dealing with delinquent children. Legal scholars also should free themselves from legal documents and pay attention to concrete conditions, thus avoid the usual formalistic presumption from theories.