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Table of Content

    20 May 2007, Volume 27 Issue 3
    Articles
    A Shift towards Individual’s Standpoint in Sociology
    Zhai Xuewei
    2007, 27(3):  1-1 . 
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    Western sociology is a social science that took root and developed in a particular historical context. It has been providing service to the government and other social institutions. For this reason, its intellectual heritage engenders a certain professional incentive structure, which makes it relatively difficult, in comparison with other related disciplines, to bring much benefit to individuals, a professed aim of sociology. To change this situation, sociology must revisit the relationship between social structures and behavioral agency to develop a deductive intellectual system built on the social exchange theory and its extensions, which is the precursor of a directional shift in sociology. It gives hope to a kind of “sociology for individuals” and an opportunity to reconstruct an indigenous sociology in China.

    Reviving China Through Reason; Organizing Society Through Schools—A Sociological Interpretation of Liang Shuming’s Rural Construction and His Views on Rural Education
    Xiong Chunwen
    2007, 27(3):  26-26 . 
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    Liang Shuming’s rural construction theory and his views on rural education are established on his understanding and assessment of the issues and sociocultural characteristics of Chinese society. The study reported in this article has revealed a typical mode of sociological thinking whether in Liang Shuming’s discussion of the meanings of the Chinese sociocultural essence or in the persistent reason in his rural construction theory and his suggested ways for social education. His sociological insights and cultural consciousness, as demonstrated in his theoretical explanations and practices, are the valuable wisdom and attitude particularly needed for our present task to construct a new, socialist rural society in China.

    Relationship Capital and Its Debit / Credit
    Geng Jing;Li Yanjun
    2007, 27(3):  44-44 . 
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    Applying the interaction theory to the analysis of a case that involved the debit / credit of relationship capital, this paper illustrates how social capital plays its functions when activated by people’s action strategies. The paper also questions the two theoretical perspectives of functionalism and structuralism. The author contends that, only with the mobilizing capacity owned by the person him / herself, can this person utilize the relationship capital that already exists in his / her social network to construct new relational chains in order to credit the toplevel, outstanding capital and eventually bring out its values in an effective way.

    Resource Mobilization and the Civil Aid via the Internet
    Zhang Youde;Zhou Songqing
    2007, 27(3):  70-70 . 
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    The premature Social Security system in China and the undercoverage of governmentsponsored aid have made it very difficult for ordinary people to get help from the government and society when unexpected disasters suddenly befall on them. With the Internet coming into being and getting popularized, people have begun to utilize it as a channel to solicit aid and to organize relief activities. This paper applied a Western theory of resource mobilization to a relief case via the Internet to analyze the structure and pattern of Internet mobilization for social aid and to compare its advantages and limitations with traditional mobilization efforts for relief.

    The Folk Custom of “Zhufu” (Blessing) and Its Interpretations
    Liu Chunyan;Xia Yamei
    2007, 27(3):  92-92 . 
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    Folk customs are rich in the information that is extremely important to an understanding of a society and its cultures. This paper interprets the cultural symbols of a special folk custom, known as “Zhufu” or blessing, practiced at the end of the Chinese year in Shaoxing region, Zhejiang providence of China. Three cultural patterns, namely, “maturity and harvest,” “death and departure,” and “end and revenant,” are examined to decompose the complex multiple meanings embedded within the concept of “end” in its temporal sense. Our objectives are to understand a special worldview of the Chinese people and to explore the foundation for the production and reproduction of a culture.

    A Role Engagement Model of Elder Care
    Xia Chuanling
    2007, 27(3):  114-114 . 
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    Based on the literature review of the elder care in China, a role engagement model of elder care is specified in this paper. This model is composed of three core propositions: (1) the cost proposition the higher the costs, the lower the probability for a person to involve in elder care; (2) the proximity propositionthe shorter the distance (geographical or social) between the caregiver and the carereceiver, the higher the probability for a person to take the caregiver role; (3) the obligation propositionthe stronger the obligation felt toward the carereceiver, the higher the probability for the caregiver to engage in elder care. Most of the six hypotheses derived from these three propositions are supported by the results from a multivariate normal probability analysis of the raw data of the 2000 China’s Urban and Rural Old Population Sampling Survey. The findings from this study have provided a new angle and a theoretical basis to understand the relationship between state care and family care for the elderly, and to select public policies rationally.

    Analysis of the Chinese Women’s Developmental State: Based on the Index System of Gender Equality in the Family Sphere
    Wu Fan
    2007, 27(3):  142-142 . 
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    In line with the goal of holistically building a socialist, harmonious “Xiao Kang” society, and with the reference to the frequently used international indexes of gender equality and women’s development in the family sphere, the author has constructed such an index to fit the reality in China. The Chinese index was applied to the analysis and evaluation of the gender equality and women’s developmental state in family. The results indicate that both are at the intermediate developmental level. When compared with the levels in the areas of health, education, and finance, the levels of the gender equality and women’s development in the family sphere are relatively lowerwomen are still playing the traditional roles in family and the pattern of family duties shared by men and women hasn’t been radically changed.

    An Analysis of the ReemploymentOriented Behaviors of the Unemployed and the Influencing FactorsBased on the Investigation of the Unemployed in Wuhan, Jingzhou, and Honghu, Hubei Province
    Gong Wenjuan
    2007, 27(3):  156-156 . 
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    Based on the investigation of 973 jobless people in three areas of Wuhan, Jingzhou, and Honghu, Hubei province, this paper describes the basic situation of the reemploymentorientated behaviors of the unemployed and analyzes the major factors affecting such behaviors with advanced statistics. The results indicate that the unemployed have a positive attitude toward reemployment but most of them have to take unstable, noncareer jobs with low social prestige or in the selfemployment sector. The unemployed individuals’ social characteristics have a strong effect on their behaviors to secure reemployment, but their desire for reemployment is a nonsignificant factor. The current study does not support the view that overexpectation of reemployment will restrict the reemploymentoriented behaviors of the unemployed.

    A Review of the Sociological Literature on Chinese Township Governments’ Roles and Behaviors
    Rao Jing;Ye Jingzhong
    2007, 27(3):  178-178 . 
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    Using the two research orientations of “structure / institution” and “process / event,” this paper reviews the sociological literature on township governments’ roles and behaviors since 1980. The literature with the “structure / institution” orientation boils down to two conclusions of “pressure systems” and “operating managers” the former accounts for the township governments’ passive, improper behaviors under the pressure of the assessment and evaluation system; the latter points to the active role that township governments in the economically developed regions play to serve their own groups’ interests. A minority of researchers has followed the new “process / event” orientation to examine township governments’ active role as the actor and their policy selection in the process of an actual event. These two research orientations are not necessarily in contradiction; they can be complementary to each other. At present, special attention should be directed to researching township governments’ roles and behaviors in the new dynamic relationship between the “state” and the “rural local society” after the tax reform in 2000.