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    Family Backgrounds and the Attainment of Cadre Positions (1950-2003)
    Sun Ming
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2011, 31 (5): 48-69.  
    Abstract3515)      PDF(pc) (1573KB)(1286)       Save

    Based on the Chinese General Social Survey 2003 (CGSS2003), the author used the general capital theory and institutional analysis to examine the mechanisms of how family backgrounds affected the attainment of cadre positions before and after the reform by the eventtracing method. The findings show that: (1) In the prereform Mao era (1950-1977), the offspring of PLA (People’s Liberation Army) families capitalized on their good family origin to enjoy the highest likelihood to be cadres, with becoming a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) member as the intermediate mechanism; and (2)After the reform (1978-2003), the offspring of cadres and the intellectuals had the advantage in attaining cadre positions, and the intermediate mechanisms for that to happen were education and CCP membership. Moreover, even with these two variables controlled, the family background of either middle or high cadre status still had a significant statusreproducing effect.

     

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    Cited: Baidu(8)
    Interests, Games, and Pension Reform:Analysis of Pension System by Political Sociology
    Yang lixiong
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2008, 28 (4): 148-172.  
    Abstract2261)            Save

    This paper discusses the interest games in the process of pension reform and the trend of pension privatization by employing the neopluralism theory. The research on Latin America and CentralEastern Europe demonstrates that the pension reforms in those areas benefit from their special political systems, support from exogenous actors and the powerful drive from the government, and that the reduced resistance against pension reforms can be attributed to lacking of veto points and weak social organizations. In contrast, the analysis of the situations in the U.S.A, UK, and EU reveals the tremendous difficulty in pension privatization due to diversified interests, multilevel veto points, and powerful trade unions.

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    Male Migrant Workers and their Subjective Construction of Social Status, Gender, and Sexuality
    Huang Yingying,Wang Wenqing ,Pan Suiming
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2011, 31 (5): 114-132.  
    Abstract3376)      PDF       Save

    Male migrant workers’ sexuality has gradually attracted attention in society but sociological research in this regard is lacking. With the interview of 136 male migrant workers at four construction sites in Beijing, this paper takes the workers ”talking about "xiaojie” as their daily discourse and gets further into the constructive meaningfulness of such discourse at the level of the root theory. Beyond the construction of the “siaojie image” (the object of the discourse), the paper further discusses how these men subjectively construct their own social status, gender, and sexuality through the “talking of xiaojie”; and analyzes the relationships among the trio of status, gender, and sexuality. By presenting such subjective construction, the paper tries to reveal how male migrant workers anchor themselves in society and determine their positive survival strategies in the real life.

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    From Xiushen to Gongmin: The Transformation of Moral Education in Elementary School in the Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China
    JIANG Han
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2024, 44 (5): 96-124.  
    Abstract514)   HTML9)    PDF(pc) (3446KB)(246)       Save
    The reformation of moral education curriculum reflects the cultural shifts in modern China. Focusing on the curriculum reforms of the early 1920s, this article examines the evolution of moral ideals in the light of the changes in the social situation of the Chinese intelligentsia. With the establishment of the modern school system, moral education was institutionalized in the form of self-cultivation (Xiushen) curriculum. Educators denounced traditional moral education centered on Confucius classics and hoped to apply Western pedagogical theories to the teaching of Xiushen. They advocated the replacement of abstruse classics with easy-to-understand textbooks as well as the adoption of pedagogical methods aligned with children’s psychological development. In the early 1920s, however, under the influence of the New Culture Movement, educators began to question the moral authority of teachers, and thus the rationality of the Xiushen curriculum. Drawing on the prevailing Deweyism at the time, educators argued that moral education should be grounded in the study of and active participation in “society”. This realization led to the abolishment of Xiushen and the establishment of Civics (Gongmin) training curriculum. Furthermore, the reformation of moral education curriculum was also linked to the transformation of the intelligentsia. In traditional China, the moral principles in the Confucian classics not only served as moral norms but also the basis of legitimacy of social domination. Literati who mastered Confucian discourses could move upwards to be ruling officials through the imperial examination system, and whereby enjoy political and economic privileges. Thus, the critique of classical education marked the intellectual class’ departure from its traditional social identity as scholar-officials, and the discussion around“society” represented an attempt to interpret moral education based on their new social situation. No longer dependent on imperial power, the intelligentsia began to value the political potential of the common people. Analyzing the transformation of moral education curriculum helps to further understand the sociological implications of the moral revolution during the late Qing and early Republican periods.
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    Risk and Anticipation: The Effect of Social Security on the Chinese Residents’ Consumption and Savings
    WANG Yi
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2009, 29 (5): 132-148.  
    Abstract2817)      PDF(pc) (607KB)(1346)       Save

     At present, the economy has been on a speedy rise in China, but the Chinese residents’ savings have continued to climb even the total demand is not sufficient. The low internal demand resulting from high savings but low consumption has become an important factor that restricts China’s economy from developing rapidly and operating positively. The unsteady social security system is the major reason for the people’s caution on spending. This paper mainly analyzes how the social security level and social security system in China affect the residents’ savings and discusses the key to accelerating the national internal demand, stimulating people’s consumption, and improving the Chinese citizens’ benefits from the perspective of social security.

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    Between "Life" and "Ideal": An Outline of Durkheim's Sociology of Action
    Yan ZHENG
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2025, 45 (2): 205-240.  
    Abstract155)   HTML7)    PDF(pc) (3619KB)(82)       Save

    This paper attempts to systematically outline Durkheim's sociology of action with the two core concepts of "life" and "ideal" as the main axis. Firstly, Durkheim's sociology of action begins with a sociomorphological analysis and a sociopathological diagnosis of the crisis of modernity caused by the separation of thinking and action. He focuses on two major types of actors, namely intellectuals and citizens, as presented in his work Suicide. Secondly, through the analysis of core texts such as Ethics and the Sociology of Morals and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, the paper points out that Durkheim's action schema not only absorbs the routine actions carried out by citizens in their daily lives for the needs of their faith, but also includes the creative actions taken by sociologists to rebuild the common ideals in times of crisis. Thirdly, through an examination of Durkheim's thoughts and actions during the Dreyfus Affair and the World War I, the paper further points out that the two types of actors and their iconography of action sketched by Durkheim are not isolated from each other but rather intertwined together. Only through the common communication and collective action between citizens and intellectuals can sociology break through the barriers of binary opposition between science and belief, thinking and action, body and mind under the conditions of modernity, thus expanding the boundaries of intellectuals'rationalism, while at the same time integrating the public needs into the orbit of civilization, and jointly creating sacred ideals that are appropriate to the times, and realizing the reconstruction and renewal of society. Finally, Durkheim's reflection on the issue of action inherits and carries forward the intellectual tradition of French "political rationalism", highlights the political concerns of sociology and the public responsibilities of intellectuals, and provides us with a model of "embodying one's ideas with one's actions" on how to think about social theories in our time.

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    Ethical Life without Virtue: Hegel on the Ideal of Modern Society
    CHEN Tao
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2022, 42 (5): 95-123.  
    Abstract2200)   HTML57)    PDF(pc) (3057KB)(620)       Save
    Hegel’s concept of “Sittlichkeit” can help us to clarify the ideal of modern society and the challenge it poses to traditional ethical practices. By comparing it with the ancient concept of “” (ethos), we are able to see the dynamics and ideas of modern society. In Aristotle, “” constitutes a way of life that is constructed by means of customs, laws, and polity to shape human desires and appetites. Laws, institutions and customs are never self-sufficient and complete for the ethical space between natural virtues and intellectual virtues. They are fundamentally depended on human virtues. In contrast, in Hegel’s “Sittlichkeit”, modern ethical life is able to incorporate our various desires into system as “activities” by means of complete and rational laws and institutions. In principle, modern men do not need to be highly virtuous to pacify and transform their desires and win the recognition of others and freedom. By simply obeying laws and institutions, this could be achieved. However, while modern society can offer us economic, social and political independence and freedom, it cannot provide us with a place to live that is a truly comparable to a home. What we need to think is that whether we have other possibilities besides the rationalization and perfection of laws and institutions. For us, a nation with a strong ethical tradition, the future still depends on whether we can find and revive those ethical traits from our own tradition to steer rationalised laws and institutions to create a communal life worthy of desire.
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    Imperial Family and Royal Relatives: Family Ethics in the Western Han Politics
    HANG Suhong
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2012, 32 (4): 24-49.  
    Abstract2996)      PDF(pc) (1586KB)(1433)       Save

    Abstract: With the decline of the feudal patriarchal system in the preQin Dynasty, Qin and Han Empires established the emperor system. This was accompanied with the great development of royal relatives in the Western Han Dynasty. From this phenomenon, this article attempts to get a new way to understand “the relations of home and country” in traditional Chinese politics. Based on the statistical analyses of the number of royal relatives who were awarded with official positions and the awarding channels in the “Tables of Enze Hou” and “Tables of One Hundred of Officials,” and the relevant historical documents, the author has concluded that royal relatives in the Western Han Dynasty obtained extensive upper positions in the social hierarchy by the method of “Being Marquis as Relatives”(以亲受爵). They were the major constituent in the sectors of “three councillors and nine ministers” (三公九卿) and “generals/commandersinchief” (大司马将军), having affected the entire political development of the Western Han Dynasty. This phenomenon was related to the weak “situation” as a result of subinfeudating vassals with the same surname. The second reason was rooted in the family ethics that had “kinship” and “righteousness” as its foundation , which was the pillar for the marriagebased familial connected support, and, laid down the groundwork for the formation of the Western Han imperial family and its relatives. In this sense, we can glimpse into the isomorphism of “home” and “state” in the Western Han politics.

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    Economic Crisis is an Opportunity to Impel Social Structures for Accommodation
    Lu Ming
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2009, 29 (1): 1-6.  
    Abstract2444)      PDF(pc) (365KB)(594)       Save
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    Based Game: A New Explanatory Framework for RightSafeguarding Action in Grassroots Society
    Dong Haijun
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2010, 30 (5): 96-120.  
    Abstract3473)      PDF(pc) (1575KB)(1235)       Save

    The research on rightsafeguarding actions in grassroots society has kept the dialog ongoing, but it needs a comprehensive explanatory framework to rid the current explanations of their tension. Borrowing the meaning of Shi in a native resource concept and nurtured by the sound core explanatory ideas, the author used a real life township case to suggest an integrated explanatory framework—a Shibased Game with four aspects of perceiving  Shi , creating Shi, lending or borrowing Shi, and applying  Shi , which are in the same rightsafeguarding action system together with the gameobject`s response by Shi and the mediator’s MiddleWay Shi . This framework displays the rightsafeguarding actor’s plurality, the game`s equality, tactics’ expediency, factors’ diversity, and contents’ richness. It reflects the transitional tendency in the Chinese grassroots society, expands the rightsafeguarding perspective in the grassroots, and exhibits a process from the form of safeguarding rights of the government vs. the civil or the powerful vs. the weak to a game involving multiple interest groups. Thus, this framework possesses a better integrative explanatory power at a higher level.

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    WANG Hejian
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2005, 25 (5): 1-17.  
    Abstract476)      PDF(pc) (787KB)(352)       Save
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    Perception of Income Fairness:A Sociological New Institutionalist Explanation
    LIU Xin, HU Anning
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2016, 36 (4): 133-156.  
    Abstract1710)   HTML    PDF(pc) (703KB)(1219)       Save

    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.

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    Cited: Baidu(4)
    Disability as Capability Limitation: Review and Reflection on the Existing Models of Disability Study
    YU Lian
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2018, 38 (4): 160-179.  
    Abstract1093)   HTML    PDF(pc) (616KB)(385)       Save

    The discipline of disabilities studies has gone through a line of Personal Model to Medical Model to Social Model. All three models place their focus on the causes of disabilities and view them as the core of disabilities. Such a limitation reflects the conventional thought mode of cause-impact and can lead to stereotypes and labeling of disabled people. Researchers like Tom Shakespeare criticize the Social Model for its rigid dichotomy of impairment (bodily difference) and disability (social creation),as well as its dichotomy of social exclusion and social inclusion. This paper suggests that understanding the disability by focusing on impacts than on causes is a better approach. The capabilities approach frees us from competing claims on the causes of disabilities and channels our attention to capabilities and potentials of the person in a personal,ever-changing and holistic environment. This approach examines the abilities of an individual,not a labeled group,to tackle specific elements that make a situation disabling for a given person. Thus,the approach gives us a precise model of disabilities and a possibility to achieve a more comprehensive and effective response to the disabled.

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    “CoConstitution”: Structure and Rationality in the Transformation of Social Networks: A Case Study of Casual Construction Workers’ Social Networks in E City
    CAI Changkun
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2012, 32 (6): 182-203.  
    Abstract2772)      PDF(pc) (1693KB)(482)       Save

    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”.

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    “Digital Divide” : A New Perspective for Analyzing Modern Social Stratification
    Li Sheng
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2006, 26 (6): 81-81.  
    Abstract3063)      PDF(pc) (1413KB)(773)       Save

    In contemporary society, with the development of the information technology and the rising essentiality in the information itself, Internetbased electronic information systems have penetrated every field of our world. These systems have produced a new range of information in the industry, economy, and communities, affecting people’s social lives. From the perspective of social stratification, this paper, via analyzing the dual “modernismpostmodernism,” theoretically explains the “digital divide” phenomenon resulting from information and information technology, discusses whether it is “stratifying” or “destratifying,” and finally, gives an empirical analysis of the “digital divide” in the highly informationalized Japanese society. Obviously, information with its technology has already become a new variable and, in its close relation to social strata, is now rebuilding the mechanism of social stratification.

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    Unfinished “Natural Sociability”: Human Nature and Normativity of the Modern Society
    LI Meng
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2016, 36 (6): 78-96.  
    Abstract1215)   HTML    PDF(pc) (618KB)(817)       Save

    Natural Society intends to investigate the doctrine of human nature and normativity articulated by Thomas Hobbes and other members of the modern natural law school concerning the constitution of modern moral world. The state of Nature, natural rights or natural law, and social contract are three decisive moments of modern moral order. The theory of natural state advanced by Hobbes and Grotius, synthesized the apparent opposite self-love and sociability and thus provided a starting point for modern moral philosophy. The state of nature, as moral space, should not be understood a normative order with the natural or objective measure beyond subjective natural rights. In the modern world, normativity is made simultaneously with the social contract which constitutes the Leviathan.

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    Interdisciplinary Research on China's Rural Society:A Discussion about Revolution,Clans and Methods
    Zhang Peiguo
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2007, 27 (2): 104-104.  
    Abstract2748)      PDF(pc) (613KB)(629)       Save
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    Governance Risk and Staff Personnel Management: A Political Logic Analysis of the Formation of Officials and Local Staff Separation and Its Persistence
    WANG Quanwei
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2023, 43 (4): 214-239.  
    Abstract588)   HTML27)    PDF(pc) (2747KB)(685)       Save
    The separation of officials and local staff(官吏分途)was an important phenomenon in the history of Chinese political system. Recently, some scholars have argued for the rationality of its existence from the logic of governance. This paper attempts to demonstrate that the division between officials and local staff is a troublesome institutional arrangement from the perspective of governance, and its formation and persistence are mainly the result of political logic. In ancient China, problems of bureaucratic cliques and aristocratization often led to the erosion of imperial governance power and endangerment of the ruling power. The management system handling petty bureaucratic functionaries at all levels was thus closely associated with governance risk prevention. First of all, this study argued that separating officials from local staff began with the bureaucratic aristocratization during the Eastern Han dynasty. The difference in social status between nobles and commoners affected the establishment of formal official ranking system, resulting in a total separation between officials and local staff in recruitment, ranking and moral prestige. Secondly, the continuity of this separation after the Tang dynasty was closely related to the rulers' desire to prevent governance risks. After Song dynasty, the problems associated with the separation between officials and local staff became well recognised. For each succeeding dynasty, reform proposals were attempted but more or less all wanted to go back to the open but politically highly risky selection system(pishu, 辟署制). The Imperial rulers would rather endure the ills of the system than change it. This paper reveals the bureaucratic personnel risks that have not been explored previously and its profound influence on the ancient Chinese bureaucracy. It is worth noting that similar political risks still exist in contemporary times, and they are now receiving increasing attention and rectification.
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    Equal Cooperation: Examining the Partner Relationship between the Government and Social Work Service Organizations during the PostCatastrophe Reconstruction
    ZHU Xi-Feng
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2009, 29 (3): 189-196.  
    Abstract2310)      PDF(pc) (550KB)(577)       Save
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    Redistribution and the Change of Class Differences of Subjective Well-Being, 2005-2013
    HONG Yanbi
    Chinese Journal of Sociology    2017, 37 (2): 106-132.  
    Abstract1338)   HTML    PDF(pc) (792KB)(1391)       Save

    Using CGSS2005 and CGSS2013, this paper analyzes the class differences of subjective well-being (SWB) between 2005 and 2013, and attempts to explore the effects of state redistribution capability on this change. First, the longitudinal comparison finds that the SWB of all classes improved significantly during that period, however, due to the potential measurement issues, such a conclusion should be regarded with caution. Second, the differences between occupational classes can be explained by variations in income and education. Nevertheless, the model R2 in 2013 is much smaller than the R2 in 2005, indicating a possible change in the pattern of SWB formation. Third, the degree of SWB improvement of lower classes is significantly higher than middle- and upper classes (managers and professionals). An analysis on satisfaction in year-to-year comparison also shows a significant decrease of satisfaction among managers and professionals from 2005 to 2013. Fourth, HLM analyses reveal that the enforcement of state redistribution ability plays an important role in the changes of classes differences on SWB. Under the relatively low level of state macro tax collection and redistribution of 2005, the increased ability of both tend to benefit high income groups more; while at a much more effective level of 2013, the reinforcement of state macro tax collection and redistribution appear to have the same effects on all income groups across the board. These results show that the state redistribution power has somewhat a limited impacton SWB of different income groups. This could be indicative of a new phase in Chinese social structure, in which the power of redistribution plays a strong role on individuals' life choices and well-being.

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