This paper attempts to trace the origins of Max Weber's concept of "disenchantment"(Entzauberung) and its associated narrative through a combination of etymological analysis and and intellectual genealogy. It identifies two primary sources: German Romanticism represented by Schiller, and the 17th-century Dutch theologian Balthasar Bekker. In his work The Gods of Greece, Schiller introduced the concept of "de-deification" (Entgötterung), which was not merely a nostalgic or anti-Enlightenment gesture, but an attempt to improve humanity through the divine. German Romantics placed significant emphasis on "witchcraft" or "magic" (Zauber), proposing monism and aesthetics as pathways to overcome the shortcomings of a mechanistic worldview; Meanwhile Bekker's anti-witchcraft stance, drawing upon Cartesian dualism, argues for the ineffectiveness of witchcraft in defense of faith. Both approaches left their own unresolved issues: German Romanticism's aesthetic solution remained accessible only to a small intellectual elite, failing to address society as a whole, while its anthropomorphic theology proved unrealistic. Bekker's anti-witchcraft position, on the other hand, encountered two formidable challenges: the relationship between magic and religion, and the universal history of human religion. Weber's writings during World War I synthesised insights from both sources, addressing their respective unresolved problems to complete a "closure" of critical inquiry. On one hand, he recognized the void of meaning in modern civilization, advocating for "vocation"(Beruf) to combat the existential weariness; on the other, he proposed a historical schema of religious development, where the "disenchantment of religion" spilling over into the "disenchantment of the world", which in turn created room for discussions of "re-enchantment" against the backdrop of the "clash of the gods".
This article is a reconsideration of phenomenological sociology. Edmund Husserl, in his later genetic phenomenology and studies on intersubjectivity, had already addressed issues relevant to sociology. Therefore, in the view of Alfred Schutz, who was deeply influenced by Husserl, the conception of "phenomenological sociology" is rooted in the intersection of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology and Weber's interpretative sociology, that is, using transcendental phenomenology to clarify the legitimacy of interpretative sociological methods. However, "phenomenological sociology," grounded in transcendental phenomenology, simultaneously shares the presupposition about subjectivity of transcendental phenomenology. This presupposition prevents Schutz from accessing the phenomenon of Society as such, and thus, as criticized by Giddens, such a "phenomenological sociology" cannot provide a reasonable explanation of the social world. To address this limitation, this article attempts to utilize the phenomenological resources of Martin Heidegger and of Jean-Luc Marion, building upon the review of Schutz's "phenomenological sociology," to take the discourse on rituals from Émile Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life as a starting point. By analyzing the temporality of rituals, it aims to phenomenologically elucidate the social world as such, that is, to reveal the phenomenality of the phenomenon of Society as eventness. By integrating Durkheim's sociology of religion into phenomenological discussions, this article hopes to offer a new possibility for phenomenological sociology and to provide modest contributions to the issue of intersubjectivity.
While some studies have attributed the behavioral problems of left-behind children in China to vulnerabilities such as parent-child separation and lack of family education, few studies have examined whether "problematised" narratives about left-behind children lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy effect, which exacerbates the behavioral problems of left-behind children. Integrating insights from social classification theory, research on teacher attitudes, and studies of anti-school culture, this study proposes a novel conceptual mechanism at the cultural belief level to explain the behavioral issues of left-behind children. Drawing on data from the second and third waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study employs a series of methods including instrumental variable regression and structural equation modeling to examine this mechanism in causality level. The main findings are as follows: first, teachers tend to hold negative evaluations of left-behind children, which contributes to the emergence of behavioral problems. Second, such negative evaluations make left-behind students more likely to engage in self-defeating resistance and more readily accepted by peer groups that endorse anti-school cultural. Third, teachers' implicit biases and their effects are more pronounced in rural schools. These findings suggest that teachers' differentiated attitudes toward left-behind students play the role of self-fulfilling prophecy. It is worth noting that a major source of the problematizing narratives adopted by teachers lies in the broader public discourse, which tends to frame the issue of left-behind children as a sever social problem affecting China's population quality (or suzhi). The widespread circulation of such narratives in public discourse reinforces a schematic association between left-behind status and behavioral problems in prevealing cultural beliefs. This study underscores the critical role of teachers in the reproduction of educational inequality and provides empirical evidences for the need to resist the problematization of disadvantaged student groups.
In a hierarchical organization, promotion incentives represent the core issue of the organization. Unlike the ideal model constructed by the political tournament theory based on the assumption of functional homogeneity, the personnel structure at the county level exhibits distinctive characteristics of functional differentiation and hierarchical segmentation. This results in grassroots officials facing dual predicaments within conventional promotion channels: inequitable distribution of advancement opportunities and systemic delays in career progression. The study reveals that priority tasks serve crucial functions in realigning personnel relationships, shortening principal-agent chains, and showcasing performance achievements, thereby constituting a significant "personnel platform" for officials to access promotion opportunities outside the conventional career pathways. This platform creates a field of opportunity for potential promotion, where actual advancement outcomes depend on three critical factors: outstanding performance in priority task execution, effective construction of trust-based relationships, and strategic alignment with opportune conditions. Consequently, while creating extraordinary career advancement opportunities and speed advantages for certain cadres, this mechanism inherently carries substantial promotion uncertainty. Thus, the "personnel platform" demonstrates a distinctive promotion logic-neither relying solely on performance-based evaluation nor being dominated by informal connections, but rather constituting a hybrid advancement mechanism that strategically amalgamates competence and relational capital. As an integral component of the county-level promotion incentive system, this mechanism simultaneously enhances the inclusiveness of career advancement pathways while optimizing the allocation efficiency of cadre resources.The theoretical contribution of this study lies in its systematic deconstruction of the personnel management function inherent in priority tasks, which elucidates the complex tripartite dynamics between organizational restructuring, relational networks, and individual competence in cadre promotion. This analytical framework significantly advances scholarly understanding of personnel structures and advancement mechanisms within the Chinese county-level governance system.
This paper examines the Shanghai left-wing youth movement during the National Revolution (1924-1927) through the lens of generational succession in the nation-building movement of the 20th century. By tracing the origins of China's youth movement, it elucidates why left-wing youth developed nation-building blueprints distinct from those of the constitutionalist gentry elites in southeastern China. The study first investigates May Fourth youth organizations (notably the Young China Association) to trace the origins of the National Revolution-era leftist youth movement, analyzing how young intellectuals subjectively perceived their role in national construction. Influenced by the idea of a nation as an organic entity inherent in youth culture, young people sought to establish spiritual identification between the individual and the nation-state. This drove their self-transformation according to national ideals and formation of new collectives to forge an integrated modern nation. The transcendental idealism and anarchist ethics prevailing among youth inclined them toward reforming traditional social organizations and ethical relationships mediating between individual and state. Consequently, they rejected the legitimacy of southeastern gentry elites' modernization model based on "gentry-administered democracy".This divergence produced contrasting orientations: the gentry's reforms exhibited an engineering-technical approach-continuing Ming-Qing local autonomy traditions while incorporating American influences to create a modernization program integrating pragmatic education, constitutional campaigns, and national industries. Left-wing youth conversely articulated a moral ethos centered on social justice and nationalism. During the National Revolution, Shanghai's leftist youth reshaped ideological discourse through party organs, revolutionary universities, militant publications, and student federations. These institutions reconfigured young people's consciousness and behavioral patterns, prompting them to interpret self and society through Marxist frameworks. Ultimately, this fostered a materialist worldview encompassing both cosmic and social orders, alongside a collectivist philosophy of life.
Against the backdrop of China's transition to a sustained low-fertility regime, marriage—as the institutional foundation of childbearing—has drawn increasing attention for its role in shaping fertility patterns. This study employs microdata from four waves of China's population censuses (1990-2020) and applies a conditional decomposition method to estimate the structural contribution of marital status to changes in fertility levels among women of reproductive age. In addition, it incorporates provincial-level panel data to examine regional heterogeneity in the relationship between marriage and fertility. The results show that although the overall structure of marital status remained stable over the past three decades, the structural contribution of marital status to fertility change has increased significantly once age and education are controlled for. The effect is more pronounced in urban areas, though rural areas also display a steadily rising trend. Findings from provincial panel analyses further indicate that the explanatory power of marital status is closely associated with regional socioeconomic development, and that the interaction between shifts in marital structure and fertility norms varies across provinces.Theoretically, this study engages with the ongoing debate over the applicability of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory in the Chinese context. By foregrounding institutional and structural dimensions, this study extends global demographic theories to non-Western contexts and contributes to the construction of a localized theoretical framework for understanding Chinese fertility behaviors. It highlights the persistent misalignment between structural inertia and shifting fertility values, offering a new lens to explain the persistence of the lowest fertility rates in China.
Constitutional monarchy is the foundation of the modern British political system, and the political significance of the monarchy cannot be fully explained in the social contract theory.Edmund Burke was the first to reflect on the social contract theory based on natural rights, arguing that British democratic politics stemmed from the constitutional tradition, and the retention of the crown was a continuation of the spirit of the constitution. Stimulated by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, and faced with the tendency towards individualism caused by the theory of natural rights and the social contract theory, British conservatism resorted to historical traditions, and emphasized the role of the constitution in maintaining the integrity of society. Walter Bagehot reintroduced the principle of dignity in the political system, arguing that the Queen was the head of society, and that the principle of society was another foundation independent of the principle of government efficiency. As the representative of society, the Queen highlights the wholeness of society. Upon this foundation, James Frazer established a social theoretical basis for constitutional monarchy. He broke away from the dualistic Christian division of sacred and secular political theory and examined the historical forms of kingship and the relationship between royal and divine authority. He argued that the sanctity of the king came from his social responsibilities, and the king became the head of society by creating a customary and cultural community centered around himself through sacrificial rites. In British history, the constitutional tradition of "the King in the council in the Parliament" is the embodiment of the totality of society centered on the king. However, it was established in an early institutionalized form and became the main content of the British political system. By exploring the social significance of the monarchy in constitutional monarchy and re-emphasizing the integrity of society, conservatives helped to maintain the social order amidst the changes of the times, and reshaped the traditional cultural values, and cultivated the social sentiments of the citizens.
There are always considerable tensions between the state building and the reproduction of elite families. Clarifying the basic strategies and changes in the cooperation of elite family organizations in the early state power expansion is crucial to understanding the interaction between state governance and social structure. This research uses exponential random graph model(ERGM) and the Song Dynasty dataset from the China Biographical Database (CBDB) to examine the two marriage logics of elite families based on status matching and sheltered sharing, as well as the impact of the Xining Reform on the "matching by status" and "long-standing alliance" marriage modes under these two logics. The research finds that in the early stage of transition from a traditional to a modern state, social mobility increases but state power remains relatively limited. Elite families exhibit low risk preference and conservative behavior patterns. Their marriage strategies are mainly manifested as negative matching based on ascribed status and positive matching based on achieved status from the perspective of individual traits, as well as the continuation of hereditary patronage relationships and the suppression of oppressive patronage relationships from the perspective of relational structure. As the nation building process accelerates, the expansion of state power dominated by utilitarianism, centralization and institutionalization influences the reproduction strategies of the elite by adjusting the social redistribution mechanism, prompting them to adopt more open and risk-taking marriage strategies: on the one hand, increased social openness reduces homogeneous marriages among elite families based on positive status matching, and on the other hand, the expansion of state power strengthens the external pressure and internal demand for elite families to focus on clans, hence promoting the positive influence of sheltered relationships among previous generations on the intermarriages of subsequent generations. The research findings reveal the complex picture of the interaction, coordination, and integration between the "state" and the "family" in the early state building process in China.
Existing research on Chinese apprenticeship system has primarily focused on its characteristics as a form of wage labor, while failing to address the underlying ethics of action-specifically, the distinctive "patriarchal" features inherent to the system. From the perspective of behavioural ethics, the possibility of establishing a master-apprentice relationship lies in the tendency to integrate new social relationships outside the family into existing ethical frameworks. Pre-Qin Confucian literatures encapsulate the ethical essence of master-apprentice bonds as "between affection(En) and righteousness(Yi)": the character-building objectives of their interactions define the ethical dimension of "Yi"; while their shared daily life and moral exchanges grounded in shared values define the ethical dimension of "En". This ethical relationship manifested in mourning rituals through the practice of three-year period of "mourning with the heart".The master-apprentice relationship exhibits remarkable flexibility in China's historical records: on the one hand, while quasi-familial phenomena were commonplace in Chinese society, written norms lacked explicit standards for such a relationship, rendering it exceptionally adaptable compared to other social relations. On the other hand, the master-apprentice relation had appeared intermittently throughout historical records, with its visibility generally correlating with the prominence of Confucian thought movements outside official institutions. This flexibility stem from the subjectivity with which actors perceive bonds of obligation and gratitude. Unlike foundational Confucian relationships such as father-son or monarch-subject, the master-apprentice relationship lacked objectively defined criteria. It was not anchored in clear blood ties or contractual agreements, consequently, the ritual system was incapable of imposing rigid and one-size-fits-all rules. Instead, it preserved a foundation of basic etiquette while allowing actors to express sentiments based on subjective emotions. This dual-dimensional perception of affection(En) and righteousness(Yi) continues to shape contemporary Chinese interpersonal interactions.
Financial development is not only an important driving force for economic growth, but also a significant force in shaping social structure. In recent years, with the continuous acceleration of financialization in China, financial factors have increasingly permeated multiple aspects of business operations and social governance, triggering a great deal of concern in the academic community about the possible structural consequences of financialization. Combining the perspectives of financial development and power structure, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for analyzing the inequality effects of financial development and proposes three potential inequality effects: maximising the inequality-maintaining effect, effectively expanding inequality effect and effectively reducing inequality effect. Using data from A-share listed companies between 2007 and 2022, this paper examines the impact of financialization of non-financial enterprises on the intra-firm income gap. The study finds that the financialization of non-financial enterprises has significantly widened the income gap between management and ordinary employees. Specifically, financialization has deepened the existing power structure within enterprises. On the one hand, it inhibits the expansion of real business by directing investment to the financial sector, which in turn weakens the bargaining power of employees and their room for pay growth; on the other hand, it prompts enterprises to adopt incentive mechanisms oriented towards maximizing shareholder value, which enhances the management's control and pay bargaining power, and enables it to obtain a larger share of resource allocation. Furthermore, although corporate financialization improves business performance to a certain extent, new profits are mainly distributed centrally to management, with limited benefits shared by ordinary employees. This finding supports the assumption of effectively expanding inequality and reveals the latent distribution risks and social inequality amplification mechanisms of financialization under the current corporate governance structure.
Weber's concept of "charisma" refers to a highly personalized "extraordinary" and the "effect" of needing to be recognized by others, and these two elements constitute the internal tension of charisma. Charisma in modern democratic politics is largely manifested as the demagogic ability. The theoretical implication of "demagogy" is that the "effect" of charisma replaces "extraordinary". The complexity lies in the fact that charisma in this sense must, at the level of real-world efficacy, transcend all structures of domination or authority—a task that appears to demand a form of charisma endowed with absolute "extraordinary". Different from interpreting "demagogy" from a political perspective, this article attempts to start from Weber's comparative study of religions and explore what kind of ethical situation can shape the charisma and enable "effect" to replace "extraordinary". The study found that whether in the case of sorcerers, prophets, or religious virtuosos, the bearers of charisma, no matter how they express their individualized "extraordinary", inevitably confront the "effect" that simultaneously negates this very extraordinary. This inherent tension allows both to coexist, yet the resulting charisma becomes entwined with the establishment of "status distinctions" and "structures of domination". Such cultural configurations cannot be reconciled with the "anti-domination" logic of "charismatic democratization", nor with the consequent "demagogy" it engenders. The shaping of charisma by Protestant Calvinism and other Protestant sects absolutely denied the significance of charisma's "effect", making charisma completely "extraordinary". This charisma, however, creates the condition for the full acceptance of "effect". Therefore, the power of charisma in modern politics is no longer achieved by emphasizing differences with others but rather by emphasizing commonalities with others, which lays a key ideological foundation for "demagogy".
In an era of increasingly industrialized and scientific food production, the emotional appeal of Chinese consumers' pursuit of unprocessed and "back-to-basics" food is particularly noteworthy. This paper examines the development history of Sanmen mud crab(scylla serrata), designated as a national geographical indication (GI) as well as an agricultural GI brand, through three distinct phases. First, in its pre-industrial production period, the "natural" endowment attributed to local crabs by Sanmen people laid an unspoken foundational consensus for its subsequent industrialization. Second, the making of "Sanmen mud crab" brand both inherits and reconstructs the "natural" quality from its pre-industrial phase. However, as its brand value and market share grew, tensions emerged between local and out-of-town crabs, between formula and natural feeding, and the pursuit of size versus freshness/sweetness, putting its "natural" endowment at risk. In the third phase, returning university graduates moved beyond the dualistic imagination of science and nature, employing scientific methods to rebuild aquaculture environments and practices, thereby, to a certain extent, managed to overcome the "natural endowment" crisis.The growth history of the Sanmen mud crab reveals that the Chinese fascination with natural food is rooted in a profound emotional structure connecting to "nature". This emotional structure, cultivated by a long agricultural civilization, is universal to humanity, yet it is further developed and reinforced by Daoist philosophy, and Daoist and Chinese traditional medicinal practices, as exemplified by the Chineses understanding of "soil"(土), which is unique to Chinese civilisation. Modernity, by distancing itself from nature and highlighting food risks and human mobility, has activated this emotional structure, leading Chinese people, even amidst industrial civilization, to seek sustenance from the agricultural past. This phenomenon is encapsulated by the phrase: "the more modern, the more 'natural'". Unearthing the specific forms of emotional structures underlying human production and consumption behaviors is an attempt to explore the emotional underpinnings of the meaning of human life, raising the possibility of sociology as a "study of life".
Using the primary and secondary education system as a case study, this paper examines the impact mechanism of public opinion in the digital age on grassroots governance. Departing from previous risk governance research that treats information transmission as an exogenous parameter, this article constructs an analytical framework of "information transmission transformation + governance structure transition + risk constraint reshaping", and introduces two concepts of "public visibility" and "superior visibility". This framework reveals the triple mechanism through which public opinion reshapes grassroots governance. At the level of information transmission, the traditional closed and hierarchical information control model is replaced by a two-way feedback mechanism. Horizontally, the public transforms from passive recipients of information to active producers, significantly enhancing information visibility through digital media and other channels. Vertically, information transcends hierarchical barriers, achieving direct access to higher levels of government, thereby weakening the original information advantage of the grassroots government. At the level of governance structure, public opinion promotes a transition from fragmented governance to collaborative governance. The public directly participates in the governance process through the expression of public opinion, shifting from external monitors to internal participants. Higher-level governments, leveraging digital monitoring tools, oversee local affairs much more closely, breaking down traditional boundaries of territorial administration and forming a horizontally and vertically coordinated governance network. At the level of risk constraints, the enhanced dual visibility of information subjects the grassroots governments to the dual pressures of public scrutiny and higher-level supervision, transforming grassroots risk constraints from elastic to rigid, and significantly compressing the risk avoidance space. The governance transformation driven by public opinion also spawns new structural contradictions: an inversion of governance capacity and responsibility risk, and a conflict between governance logic and the governance environment, leaving the grassroots facing unprecedented governance dilemmas. This paper provides a novel theoretical perspective for understanding governance transformation in the digital age.
Karl Marx pioneered one of classical traditions in historical sociology. In order to explore the uniqueness of Karl Marx's historical sociology, it is essential to delve into its methodological foundations. This study traces the formation and evolution of the methodological basis of Marx's historical sociology through his four distinct understandings of "history". In his critique of German historicism, particularly Hegel's philosophy of history, Marx developed the first relatively complete methodological framework for historical sociology: the historical deduction of production. This approach employs historical deduction, taking production as its logical starting point of historical analysis to deduce the formation of human society, thereby achieving a conclusion of social history over extended periods. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx refined this methodology through his historical analysis of "class". By critiquing Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Marx began to consider how to apply dialectics to political economy. Thus, Marx developed a more refined methodological framework for his historical sociology—"Dialectics of Phenomena in History"—whereby any existence is historically generated, and entities in the process of generation can only approximate the factuality of existence through continuous "sublation"("Aufhebung") within the historical process. When confronting different analytical objectives, one must first establish distinct historical phenomena according to dialectical logic. When confronting historical phenomena serving different cognitive purposes, one must select distinct causal analysis strategies. In response to the critique of Capital, Marx made further, albeit unfinished, reflections on the conditionality and non-necessity of generative history. Rethinking the methodological foundations of Karl Marx's historical sociology also provides insights for historical sociology research oriented towards social theory.
Based on the generational distribution of personnel within Danwei, this study conducts a case analysis of a county-level taxation agency in central China, and examinesthe historical impact of generational succession on the behavior and internal ecology of Danwei, discussing the evolution of the mores in Danwei. The study finds that intergenerational relationship is the key clue to understanding the evolution of Danwei. In 1980s, Danwei recruited a significant number of Zidi of the workers(children of employees) by securing funding quotas and administrative allocations. During this period, the intergenerational relationships within Danwei had familial characteristics, centered around formal and informal interactions between "first-generation workers" and "second-generation workers (Zidi)". This led to the formation of a compound authority structure where kinship and formal institutions were interwoven, maintaining effective functioning of Danwei. However, since the turn of the 21st Century, after the retirement of the old workers and the personnel system reform, the"Zidi Danwei" gradually declined, and Danwei began a process of "de-kinship" transformation. The "second-generation workers (Zidi)" and the "third-generation workers (students)" no longer engaged in "quasi-family" interactions, reversing the intergenerational status, breaking the compound authority structure before, and also shaping the new behaviors and norms of Danwei. Across both historical phases, intergenerational relationship remained pervasively embedded in the organizational functioning of Danwei, continuously shaping the evolution of its formal and informal institutions.The intergenerational relationship forms the mores which functions formal institutions. It is also an important perspective to study Danwei in the future.
Health education constitutes one of China's current administrative public health service programs and serves as a critical component of grassroots health governance. It encompasses professionally defined health knowledge and the manner in which individuals apply their understanding of health, thereby transcends purely administrative domain. The true significance of health education lies in its role within the specific governance process. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in two counties, this paper attempts to construct a framework for comprehending the logic of "governance of life," taking the health education program as a central thread. The prevalence of chronic diseases in aging rural areas is escalating. Against this backdrop, knowledge of preventive medicine provides a set of knowledge that defines healthy lifestyle. If healthy living is viewed as a private matter, health knowledge can only assist individuals in their efforts to solve their own problems, and government intervention may be perceived as a form of social control. Nevertheless, this paper demonstrates that, in the operation of China's grassroots governance, health knowledge is not accurately imparted to individuals, but rather travels in a contextualized and embedded manner to affect the daily lives of rural residents as an integrated community. Through the health education program, actors within and outside the government system and the medical profession work jointly to create a public governance sphere for addressing healthy living issues. This sphere is constituted by both formal institutions and informal social networks (Guanxi), which are mutually reinforcing and basically inseparable. This paper argues that, in the era of chronic diseases, the instinctive pursuit of personal health has emerged as a potent force for social integration. It reflects a shared vision of an orderly social life while simultaneously serving as a reference to governmentality, enabling state involvement in local everyday life.
As a pioneer in the study of Chinese social history, Tao Xisheng was influenced by Henry Maine and Hu Peihui. He was the first to connect the study of the system of mourning apparel with social sciences, using his "One-foundationism "theory to point out that the "family" in Chinese society was constituted by the dual principles of qinqin (affection for kin) and zunzun (respect for superiors). He argued that the zunzun principle had shaped the unique nature of the "family" in Chinese society, making it not simply a blood relationship, and it was the key to understanding the "family" in Chinese society. Unlike contemporary scholars who explore the ethical spirit of the "family" through the system of mourning apparel, Tao's research originated from modern critiques of the family. His early social-historical study of the system of mourning apparel approached the subject through the lens of power rather than moral values. In his later years, Tao reflected deeply on this and emphasized the "relativism" nature of the zunzun principle.Tao's intellectual evolution from constructing and then rejecting a systematic theory that interpreted the zunzun principle through paternal authority, significantly exposed the theoretical difficulties since the late Qing dynasty by excessively relying on power domination, especially the uncritical use of paternal authority to understand the "family" in Chinese society. Tao's early interpretation of paternal authority was based on a static society. However, in his later years, despite affirming traditional family values, he did not recreate a new pastoral-idyllic static societal scene. Instead, he revealed the subtle tension and dynamic balance between the values and dominative dimensions of the "family." This dynamic perspective suggests to contemporary researchers the inherent openness of the "family" in traditional Chinese society. It also offers valuable insights for understanding the spiritual underpinnings of the family in present-day Chinese society.
The relationship between expertise and organizational structures has long been marked by both interdependence and tension, a dynamic particularly evident in technology collaboration between hospitals at different hierarchical tiers. Existing studies on healthcare resource integration have predominantly focused on institutional barriers while overlooking the complex mechanisms underlying the operation of knowledge. This paper, based on an organizational-professional interaction framework, presents a case study of a county-level hospital integrating into a "medical consortium" system and receiving technical support from a higher-level hospital. The study conceptualizes the knowledge practice dilemma triggered by institutional integration as "knowledge misalignment", wherein the relationships between hospitals, physicians, and medical technologies are reconstructed during consolidation, leading to inefficient knowledge operations in circulation, application, and interaction. This misalignment result in unintended consequences such as upward migration and concentration of patients and functional overlap, thereby deviating from the policy objectives of the "tiered healthcare delivery system". Specifically, in terms of knowledge flow, physicians are constrained by organizational boundaries and career development incentives, leading to the short-term and inefficient nature of cross-institutional practice; in knowledge application, the mismatch between advanced technologies and primary healthcare settings increases medical risks; and in knowledge interaction, the unequal relationship between senior and junior doctors reinforces the dominance of specialized expertise, further marginalizing primary care. These mechanisms reveal the deep-seated challenges in healthcare resource integration. This study expands the sociological perspective on cross-level healthcare integration and critically reflects on the institutional tensions in China's pursuit of healthcare equity: professional knowledge systems are not merely passive objects controlled by administrative power, but rather closely intertwined with organizational conditions, constituting an integral element within the hierarchical structure of healthcare.
This study investigates the emergence of meritocratic professionalism among Chinese musicians in Germany. The Chinese and German societies differ in terms of both culture and institutions, which results in differences in the meaning, construction, and social consequences of interpersonal relationships. In Chinese Society, the guanxi-oriented concept is one of the most important guiding principles for handling all aspects of social life. The organizational structure of Chinese society is characterized by the chaxugeju, in which people distinguish insiders from outsiders in a self-centered, gradational way. In such a system, guanxi are often built on (quasi-)ascribed ties such as kinship. In contrast, the German classical music field exhibits a typical community-oriented logic of relationship building, which emphasizes achieved community formation based on individual interests or affinities. In the German classical music field, the general trajectory of professional socialization leads musicians to gradually internalize the significance of both social relationships and professional skills, fostering an integrated professionalism that values both dimensions. However, influenced by the guanxi ethic embedded in the chaxugeju pattern, Chinese musicians often cannot fully perceive and understand the local logic of social embeddedness grounded in professional communities, resulting in an overwhelming emphasis on skill embeddedness and the development of meritocratic professionalism. By displaying the concrete process through how new professional values emerge among Chinese migrants, this study moves a step forward from prevailing accounts that conceptualize cross-cultural adaptation as a process of selectively adopting or combining pre-existing cultures. It demonstrates that such new values may not derive directly from the migrants' culture of origin nor fully align with the host culture, but instead take shape as novel cultural forms constructed through the tensions between the two which shaped by the interplay of multiple dimensions of embeddedness.
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