Chinese Journal of Sociology

Rights and Power: The Law Problem in Foucault's Discourse on Governmentality

XIAO Ying

2023, 43(3): 1-53.

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The relationship between rights and power is one of the fundamental issues in Western political thought. An "orthodox consensus" has been reached in Western political theories that state sovereignty and individual rights stipulated by laws or regulations are the legitimate source not only of power practice but also of its goal and boundary. However, in a series of lectures in the College de France, Michel Foucault took governmentality as his main theme and made an in-depth analysis of the relationship between knowledge and power from different perspectives. He showed the intricate historical relationship between rights and power, governance and law, and subverted this "orthodox consensus." By combing through the history of European social governance since the Middle Ages, he demonstrated on the one hand that state sovereignty and individual sovereign rights were formed in specific power mechanisms, and, on the other hand, he emphasized that the formation and change of governance techniques—from police to disciplinary power and then to bio-power—was a process of colonizing rights and laws in different ways. And, because of the collusion of knowledge and power, these colonial mechanisms were all the more concealed by the mask of knowledge. In the face of such an awkward situation, Foucault neither opposed governance, rather opposed excessive governance, nor advocated the return of orthodox individual rights and state sovereignty, but emphasized the construction of "new rights". These "new rights" are "critiques", that is, to reveal how power and knowledge conspire and how reason has become the governing mechanism of man in a specific historical context. In the depth of Foucault's soul flickers the light of positive "nostalgia, " and at its source are the Stoic "self-governance" before and after the AD and the German neo-liberalism governance after the World War Ⅱ.

Homeless Orphan and Science as a Vocation: Ethos of Science in Max Weber's Thoughts

SUN Feiyu

2023, 43(3): 54-83.

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Starting from the famous opinion of Leo Strauss on Weber, and based on works in the tradition of general Phenomenological Sociology, this paper tries to analyze Max Weber's thoughts on Science and Homelessness. Through an analysis of Weber's texts, this paper finds that, contrary to Strauss's assertion, in his sober analysis of the protestant in terms of the historical analysis of rationalization, Weber describes Calvinist Puritans as an image of homeless orphan. The meaningful structure within this image is similar to "schizophrenia", but it is understood by Weber as a relationship of innere Verwandtschaft. This image and its corresponding structure are further clarified in Weber's later comparative study on civilization between China and European civilization. Similarly, this homeless orphan image of protestant and the corresponding structure are also in his works on the methodology of social science, and become the required ethos of science, especially for sociology as he understood it. This "understanding" resonates with modern society, modern university system and the production of modern knowledge. It has its origin in its own civilization. Finally, this paper argues that Weber's understanding of science and vocation, reflected in his lecture on Science as a Vocation, has this image of homeless orphan and structure of affinity as its essential inner substance.From the comparative perspective of home and homeless, this paper argues that, in Weber's thoughts, there is an intrinsic affinity between the image of homeless orphan and science as a vocation. Studies on this affinity offer an important clue for us to understand Weber's thoughts and to reflect the subjectivity building of China's social science.

Rhetorical Duality in Western Democracy: Taking Weber and Arendt as Examples

SHEN Yao

2023, 43(3): 84-110.

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In discussing the rhetoric of democratic politics, both Weber and Arendt support their respective diagnoses of modern problems in comparison to ancient Western political thought. They each represent two typical positions in the face of rhetoric, and at the same time propose answers to the democratic dilemma in the West based on the context of their respective times. Weber's contribution lies in his identification of the relationship between political rhetoric and the comprehensive crisis of modern society, namely, political apathy and the absence of popular participation under a democratic bureaucracy. The two sides of rhetoric are revealed in Weber's discussion. On the one hand, rhetoric can operate in a top-down manner through leaders' incitement to the masses, and on the other hand rhetoric can also operate from the bottom up, serving as the basis for public discussion and dialogue. However, Weber's treatment of rhetoric as a means fails to connect it with legitimacy. Arendt, on the other hand, argues that modern capitalist society has obscured mankind exists as words and action since ancient Greece. Based on her reflection on Nazi politics, Arendt selected public opinion as her addition to the other side of rhetoric, that is, the formation of consensus. Arendt pays more attention to rhetoric as a bottom-up form of political organization, as well as to the revelation of the concrete subject by speech and its relation to the power of legitimacy. Both Weber's and Arendt's positions in the face of rhetoric have their own contemporary contexts and limitations, but both have made outstanding contributions to the subject. The last section of this paper aims to exhibit, using Habermas, a comprehensive stance that upholds Arendt's fundamental rhetorical standpoint, while also considering Weber's overarching analysis of contemporary society.

Collective System and Household Production: A Re-Examination of Production Practice in the Period of Agricultural Collectivization

YAN Yanhua

2023, 43(3): 111-134.

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This paper re-examines the production practices and their industrial consequences during the period of agricultural collectivization through the case study of a tea-producing village in Anxi. It is found that the social transformation during the collectivization period, on the one hand, led to the widespread "de-skilling" of traditional tea merchant families, that is, through the state's agribusiness transformation and redistribution of skills, the collective system broke the monopoly of production skills inherited within the core family and the family specialization. On the other hand, it brought about the "re-skilling" for the majority of community members, that is, through the "paternalistic" production arrangements of the production team leader, tea production skills were disseminated to a wider range of households. The positive impact of the collectivization system on the local tea industry was the result of the interaction between the logic of state governance and local traditions. As a part of the formal state power structure, the production team leaders in the collectivization period were able to use the power endowed by the state to transform the traditional way of family work, so that the corresponding production arrangements were in line with the interests of the collective to the greatest extent, and it ultimately enabled the smooth development of tea garden production. However, although the family production organization was formally abolished during the collectivization period, the logic of the family organization had continued to a certain extent in the actual production organization. The production team, especially the production team leaders' balancing role between the "public family" and the "small family" played the traditional role of family authority. The study points out that it is these important features of collectivization period-the "paternalistic" style leadership of the production team leaders and the household-based production and marketing arrangements spreading production and marketing skills to the majority of households in the community-that ultimately facilitated the development of the family industry and the local tea economy in the post-collectivization period.

Fluid Boundaries of Responsibility: The Business and Politics of Grassroots Government

PAN Tong

2023, 43(3): 135-161.

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This article takes an "abnormal petition" incident as a case study to explore the changes in the responsibility boundary of grassroots governments and the emergence of relevant action strategies. The research finds that grassroots governments have a dual role orientation of "business department" and "political unit", and their respective behavioral logics are also different. The former suits for a rational bureaucracy, and its design of clear task boundaries causes the ambiguity of the responsibility boundaries of grassroots governments in practice, leaving institutional space for their risk avoidance strategies. The latter applies to the political integration, and its blurred task boundary design in fact forces grassroots governments to re-clarify their responsibility boundaries and enforce their sense of responsibility. Affected by the logic of the two systems, the responsibility boundary of grassroots governments exhibits the characteristic of "fluidity", and governments' behaviors have also shifted from "risk avoidance" to "risk taking". Rational bureaucracy and political integration determine the dual role orientation of "business-politics" of grassroots governments, which in turn affects the fluidity of the responsibility boundary. Therefore, changes of events in the governance context become the trigger mechanism. In this case study, the incident was initially just a homestead dispute. However, according to the logic of rational bureaucracy, the local government avoided the responsibility to resolve the dispute by diverting the case to the Bureau of Justice and the Bureau of Health. When the petitioner's appeal to the Bureaus failed, her journey of petitioning began. Since the incident has now transformed from an administrative incident to a petition case, the responsibility boundary of the local government has changed, and the political integration system began to play a major role. As a result, the local government takes on the responsibility of dealing with petition cases using tactics of appeasement, strict pressure, and downward responsibility transfer. This article constructed the phrase of "fluid responsibility boundary" and used it as an analytical framework, emphasizing the dual roles of grassroots governments and situational change in shaping their behavior. The study contributes to the dialogues and development of research on grassroots government responsibility.

The Limits of Care: An Ethnographic Study of Dementia Care in Nursing Homes

WU Xinyue

2023, 43(3): 162-186.

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This ethnographic study offers insights into the lifeworld and multiple experiences of individuals with dementia residing in nursing homes. Firstly, from the perspective of phenomenological sociology, the study delves into the "disruption of experiences" resulting from dementia, which fundamentally alters the existential situation of patients. This disruption manifests as a fracture of self-coherence and a dissociation of intersubjectivity. When entering a nursing home, patients are further detached from their previous social relationships and world of meaning. Secondly, the article explores how specific ensembles of knowledge and practice in nursing homes shape the dementia experience. Under the current care management system with ADL as its core classification framework, the operational significance of dementia as a category is to a large extent dismantled. However, the stigmatizing label "laonian chidai" (senile dementia) often appears in the daily symbolic interaction process, causing all kinds of discrimination and conflicts. The dilemma of cognitive impairment classification of nursing homes reveals the dialectic relationship between "normal" and "abnormal" in definition and operation. This in turn affects the personhood and living situation of people with dementia. Finally, this article focuses on the daily ethics of dementia care, selecting two typical care scenarios of demand response and physical restraint, to examine how caregivers respond to daily crises and adopt expedient practices. The study suggests that the special care relationship of dementia care provides us with a new perspective on personhood and intersubjectivity.

Cohort and Gender Disparities in Childbearing Motivation: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies in 2020

SHENG He, LI Jianxin

2023, 43(3): 187-212.

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The current low fertility rate in China has become a recognized fact, and the change in childbearing attitude is one of the key reasons. Childbearing motivation is an important component of childbearing attitude and is at the forefront of the sequence from childbearing attitude to behavior. This article examines cohort and gender differences in childbearing motivation by asking respondents why they should have children. Based on data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2020, this study uses cluster analysis to classify people's childbearing motivation into four categories: "low intention and negative", "individual-oriented", "dual-oriented emotional" and "family-oriented". The result shows that more than half of Chinese residents still have family-oriented motivation of childbearing while individual-oriented and dual-oriented emotional motivation account for 23% and 15% respectively. Only 9% of the residents have low intention and negative childbearing motivation. Moreover, there are significant inter-cohort differences in childbearing motivations. Earlier birth cohorts are more likely to have dual-oriented emotional, family-oriented motivations; while younger birth cohorts are more likely to have low intention and negative, individual-oriented motivations. Among the post-80s and post-90s groups, family-oriented motivations of childbearing gradually lose their dominance, while individual-oriented motivations increase significantly. In terms of gender differences, men's childbearing motivations are more traditional than women's, and the extent of inter-cohort change is smaller for men. The differences in childbearing motivation between men and women tend to widen among later generations. The study suggests changes in educational attainment as a possible explanation.

The Changing Course of Chinese Sense of Social Fairness in the Transitional Period and Its Explanatory Factors

XU Yanhui, KONG Yizhou

2023, 43(3): 213-242.

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The perception of social fairness is an individual's overall perception or judgment of the state of social equity. Based on the repeated cross-sectional data of the China General Social Survey from 2010 to 2018, this study provides a holistic analysis of the shifting trends of social fairness perception and their explanatory factors during the two major transition periods of China, namely, the past transition period of reform and opening up and the current transition period of diversified development. With the help of mathematical models such as log-linear models and multilevel age-period-cohort models, the following three major findings are observed. First, in the current transition period, the total social mobility rate and the upward mobility ratio have been rising, and people's perceptions on social equity show a upward trend of volatility; while in the historical transition period, with the establishment and continuous improvement of markets, the perceptions of fairness experienced a rapid decline, and then a rapid improvement. Second, the three factors of social structure, social psychology and cultural norms are neither mutually exclusive nor competitive in the changing process of social equity perceptions, but are intertwined and function in different ways. Among them, social structural factors such as intergenerational mobility are foundational to the changes in the perception of social equity, while subjective class mobility perceptions are the direct source of people's perceptions and cultural norms constitute a stable potential factor. Third, this study examines the status of social equity from the perspective of social stratification and mobility, and takes the occurrence of intergenerational mobility, and its direction and distance as key indicators to measure the objective equity status. It is found that social equity status and the sense of fairness are linked, but the moral concept on which the perception of fairness is based has changed with the transformation of society in specific historical periods. This study extends the research on social equity perceptions to the macro-process and dynamic analysis of social structural transformation and people's mentality transformation. It overcomes the relatively crude measurement of intergenerational mobility distance as well as the treatment of social equity perceptions as a static factor in previous studies. In this regard, it offers an important direction for future research to investigate deeper into the tension between subjective and objective equity and explore a new model of social stratification.

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