Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2012, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (6): 182-203.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

“CoConstitution”: Structure and Rationality in the Transformation of Social Networks: A Case Study of Casual Construction Workers’ Social Networks in E City

  

  1. CAI Changkun，School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China.
  • Online:2012-11-20 Published:2012-11-20
  • Contact: CAI Changkun，School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China. E-mail: cai_changkun@yahoo.cn. E-mail: cai_changkun@yahoo.cn

PDF

442

Abstract:

Abstract： With the framework of New Institutionalism, and with a group of casual construction workers in E city, Hubei province, as a case, the current study tried to go beyond the controversy and to integrate personal interaction and the factors in social structure and macrolevel institutions in search of mechanisms that could account for the construction, maintenance, and transformation of social networks. It was found that, on one hand, social structure restricted the scope and possibility of network construction; on the other hand, once there was change in the structure of economic opportunities at the macrolevel, individuals would selectively replicate the traditional social structure with rationality in order to reconstruct their social networks. This mechanism for the reconstruction of social networks in the traditional social relationship structure was defined as “Differentiated Replication”. Meanwhile, the traditional institutional structure, including the values, regulations, and obligations in the traditional social relational networks, would enable isostructuration with the reconstructed social networks, which was “Institutionalized Isomorphism”, a mechanism to maintain social networks and to make them stable and systematized. Therefore, in the process of social network transformation, the “rationality” determined by the economic opportunity structure would play a more important role in network creation, but the “institutional structure” in the traditional social relational structure would play a more important role in network maintenance. In sum, the social structure in the social relational structure of the social networks in transition, constrained mainly by the traditional social structure, and the economic relationships, constrained mainly by the macrolevel economic opportunity structure, were “CoConstituted,” the two mechanisms of which were “Differentiated Replication” and ”Institutionalized Isomorphism”.

Key words: migrant workers, social network, ‘differentiated replication’, ‘institutionalized isomorphism’