Loading...

Table of Content

    20 July 2007, Volume 27 Issue 4
    Articles
    Resistance and Punishment: Rural Crimes and the Order of the Property Law in Jiading County in the 1950’s
    Zhang Peiguo
    2007, 27(4):  1-1 . 
    Asbtract ( 2421 )   PDF (1113KB) ( 491 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The rural social reorganization of mutual-aid teams, cooperationalization, and state monopolization of purchase and sales in the 1950’s produced the coexistence reality of resistance and punishment. During the campaign for mutual-aid cooperation and the implementation process of the policies to monopolize purchase and sales by the state, the resistance might have partially reflected peasants’ everyday ethics. When inspected from the perspective of social engineering and governing, resistance would be likely to evolve into disruption only to incur formal punishment. Totalistic governance combined with village traditions, politicized punishment, and frequent resistance became the basic logics in the rural politics and legal practice in that time.
    Surviving the Crisis: Adaptive Wisdom, Coping Mechanisms, And Local Responses to Avian Influenza Threats in Haining, China 
    Pan Tianshu;Zhang Letian
    2007, 27(4):  34-34 . 
    Asbtract ( 3002 )   PDF (767KB) ( 521 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics

    Based on ethnographic research conducted in the summer of 2006, this paper attempts to examine local responses to the imminent threat of avian flu during the crisis within Haining County of Zhejiang Province. During our field investigation, we conducted interviews with officials from the local medical institutions (including the hospitals, the animal husbandry and vet station, and clinics), bureaus of public health and agro-economy and visited chicken farms, restaurants, and farming households. The intimate perspectives gained from our informants and consultants were crucial for us to develop a complete picture of what actually happened on the ground. We intend to bring multiple voices to bear on the issue of epidemic prevention thereby revealing how different local actors perceived avian flu threats and reacted in different ways. Our paper addresses the following factors that commonly structured the perceptions and actions of different social actors in the area: the changing mode of information sharing and communication in the local communities; the official drive to professionalize the emergency response management system in the county; and the coping mechanisms that helped the villagers and town residents survive the crisis. Our research suggests that the collective survival consciousness was translated into a spirit of voluntarism which had long disappeared after de-collectivization started more than two decades ago. Most importantly, the adaptive wisdom embedded in local memories demonstrated its operational worth as the most resourceful knowledge base for ordinary farmers to deal with food shortage, famine, plague, and future pandemics.

    Social Classification and Groups’ Symbolic Boundaries: A Case Study of Peasant Migrants
    Pan Zequan 
    2007, 27(4):  48-48 . 
    Asbtract ( 3409 )   PDF (837KB) ( 830 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The social classification of peasant migrants originated from institutional arrangements, a kind of social arrangement for the need of a city-country residential registration division installed by prescribed institutional actions and affirmed by such acquired outcomes as educational levels, individuals’ occupational choices, and the consuming taste in daily living. Its dynamic mechanism resided in early socialization and prescribed arrangements, which was the original driving force for the formation of groups' symbolic boundaries. Secondly, social classification was also shaped by social psychological processes and mechanisms through the social cognition system and the operations of social comparison, self-categorization, re-socialization, and self-redefined classification. Such behaviors in interaction set into motion the internalizing process of the groups’ symbolic boundaries and brought about their reproduction. Finally, social classification was an outcome of the increasingly fortified narrative logic, discourse system, and symbolic signs. Through social construction and knowledge reproduction, this trio could secure the process to internally fortify and reinforce groups’ symbolic boundaries.

    Metapopulation and the Study of Urban Slums

    Shi Peijian
    2007, 27(4):  68-68 . 
    Asbtract ( 2827 )   PDF (2191KB) ( 540 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Metapopulation is an important object for study in Spatial Ecology. The theory of Metapopulation, which took shape in the later part of the 20th century, is a very important ecological theory. This paper contends that the theory of Metapopulation can guide studies of urban slums. It also discusses how to apply the theory to such studies. The Levins model was applied to fit a group of computed numbers based on the 1978-2005 population data from the 2006 Beijing yearbook. The computed numbers were the ratios of the migrants in Beijing by the natives in Beijing from 1978 to 2005, approximating the p values in the different years. The resulting fitting curve was satisfying, confirming the reasonableness in treating such ratios as approximate p values. Furthermore, the invading parameter of m and the exterminating parameter of e were both obtained, making it possible to take the Levins model to analyze, predict, and study the dynamics of the poor people living in urban slums. Lastly, a new method of computing a value, which is an important constant in the Allee-like effect when studying urban slums at the Metapopulation level, is explained in the paper.
    An Empirical Study of Floating Populations’ Influences on the Urban Industrial Structure Improvement – The Example of City Ningbo
    Zhou Changlin;Wei Jianliang
    2007, 27(4):  94-94 . 
    Asbtract ( 2883 )   PDF (875KB) ( 617 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    The quantitative analysis of Ningbo data led to the following finding: With the level of population structure raised by one percent, the level of industrial structure would be improved by 5.12 percent. While floating populations could provide support for a rapidly rising urban economy, they might at the same time hold back the growth of urban industrial structure because they could pull down the level of the urban population structure, thus reducing the speed of its escalation. This paper offers three explanations, namely, the capital substitute effect from floating populations can weaken enterprises’ initiative creativity; the lack of knowledge and skills of floating populations can hinder enterprises’ advances in technology; and the low consuming power of floating populations can help sustain the space for the survival of the industries on the low end.
    The Theoretical Background of Prasenjit Duara’s Research on Chinese Nationalism
    Wei Lei
    2007, 27(4):  107-107 . 
    Asbtract ( 2763 )   PDF (688KB) ( 531 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    Prasenjit Durara’s studies of Chinese nationalism have profound theoretical background. First of all, his research reflects his concerns for the interconnected reality of nationalist movements and globalization. Second, his studies have been under the influence of recent theoretical research, especially in the international academia during the 20th century. Third, the rise of Postmodernism and Postcolonialism has provided his research with resources for thinking. In addition, his research is the incarnation of the attention to the issues in Chinese nationalism from the Chinese researchers in America and the continuation of their achievements. Finally, his research manifests the crystallization of the retrospections by the Chinese scholars in America since 1960’s.

    A Review of the US-European Scholars’ Studies on Neighborhood Effects
    Luo Liqun
    2007, 27(4):  123-123 . 
    Asbtract ( 3050 )   PDF (615KB) ( 636 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    This paper reviews US-European scholars’ summaries of the functional mechanisms of neighborhood effects and the research methods, challenges to the methods of studying neighborhood effects, and the specific empirical studies and practices. The paper contends that neighborhood effects help reduce social differences and promote social equality, which can be explained by both theory and practice. If the government is to adopt some kind of mixed-residence policy to help those in the lower social strata and alleviate the inequality in housing conditions and the overall social inequality as well, the present housing policy has to be improved. More specifically, a progressive reform should be considered: In line with the household registration reform, some of the peasant workers living in cities with a record of good work performance appraisals could be granted eligibility for “economic welfare housing” or “cheap leaser housing.” This paper also attempts to appeal to sociological scholars or even the entire social sciences circle for their attention to the research on neighborhood effects and social inequality.

    From Productionism to Consumpionism:Review of the Theory of Conspicuous Consumption

    Liu Fei
    2007, 27(4):  136-136 . 
    Asbtract ( 3193 )   PDF (761KB) ( 703 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics
    To some extent, the history of human beings is the history of consumption. Although being an important social fact, consumption had long been ignored by sociologists until the mid and late 19th century. In the Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen gave a preliminary analysis of the consuming behaviors of the new American nouveaux riches, from which the perpetual sociological term of “conspicuous consumption” was born. In this paper, the author first presented a brief introduction to Veblen’s thoughts on conspicuous consumption. Then, the author gave a systematic review of the literature on conspicuous consumption from the productionist perspective and consumerist perspective, respectively. Finally, the author critiqued the limitations in the previous research and recommended indigenous research on conspicuous consumption.
    Network Dynamics of Clique Formation in Organizations
    Zhang Jiayin;Luo Jiade
    2007, 27(4):  152-152 . 
    Asbtract ( 3348 )   PDF (973KB) ( 575 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics

    This paper examines the process of clique formation among company employees using the agent-based simulation model. With the reciprocity principle and the resource exchange theory, the model exhibits how interactions lead to interpersonal connections, which gradually form small groups whose members provide mutual support but exclude others from getting in. These small groups are eventually shaped into cliques. For the present study, two work-environment variables and one organizational-culture variable were selected to examine the factors that might influence clique formation. The resulting curve showed that heavy work load beyond one’s resources and inequality in work assignment could accelerate the formation of cliques and their further demarcations; on the other hand, very light work load and perfect equality in work assignment tended to reduce interpersonal interactions, hence employee isolation.

    QAP: A Unique Method of Measuring “Relationships” in Relational Data
    Liu Jun
    2007, 27(4):  164-164 . 
    Asbtract ( 4251 )   PDF (561KB) ( 857 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics

    One of the critical assumptions of conventional statistical methods is the independence among variables. Relational data, however, violate this prerequisite. Then how to measure relationships in relational data? QAP is an applicable solution. This paper introduces the rationale of QAP and exemplifies its application in correlation and regression with UCINET. QAP is unique in that it can not only be applied to the regression of one relational variable on another relational variable but also to correlations among relational and attribute variables.

    The Weak Valence in Weak Ties and Its Transformation: A Cultural Interpretation of Chinese Guanxi
    Li Linyan
    2007, 27(4):  175-175 . 
    Asbtract ( 3364 )   PDF (874KB) ( 756 )  
    Related Articles | Metrics

    This paper examines the specific cultural characteristics of guanxi {relationship}. The author first summarized the cultural theme, structural theme, and instrumental theme in the academic research on guanxi and then explained the necessity to go back to the cultural theme. The author concluded that general sociological concepts and theories should be applied to delineating and dissecting the guanxi phenomenon in Chinese society in order to break the dependence on the cultural interpretations based on the endogenous concepts only. As an exploratory step, the author recommended the concept of weak ties in the social network theory for its particular helpfulness to the understanding of guanxi in Chinese society, where guanxi refers to external social relationships in contrast to internal familial relationships, the former being characteristic of weak ties while the latter of strong ties. The two types of relationships display significant differences in their potential for personal choices, regularity, and social stratifying effects. Guanxi, in the author’s opinion, is in fact an action model that guides social members in their dealing with social relationships outside the family. In addition, guanxi in China represents not just a culture of weak ties; it profoundly cultivates the Chinese social structure owing to its powerful agency to transform its weak valence toward the strong end.