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    20 July 2010, Volume 30 Issue 4
    Articles
    A Study on the Performing Mechanism of Information Technology: A case Study of the OneStop Administrative EService Center at Community L in Shanghai
    2010, 30(4):  1-31. 
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    From the perspective of the interactive mechanism between information technology and

    organizational structure, this paper makes an indepth analysis of the method and path of

    information technology promoting the innovation in the baselevel public administrative sectors

    during the Chinese governmental reform. This paper has furthered Barley and Jane Fountain's

    analysis frame for the interactive mechanism model of new information technology and organization

    and has developed an analytic model of “technologystructure” time series interaction. This new

    model has been applied to the study of the complex process of introducing the information technology

    innovation to the OneStop Administrative EService Center at Community L in Shanghai.

    Obstacles in Policy Learning and Obstacle Surmounting: The Case of China’s Drinking Water Standards
    Wang Chengwei
    2010, 30(4):  32-51. 
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    This paper extends the sociality of policy learning by means of reviewing its theory and

    referring to Latour’s sociology of association, and defines policy learning as the coevolution

    of the policy relevant actornetworks and their heterogeneous ideas. The author contends that,

    during the process of policy learning, its obstacles arise with the solidification of network

    associations and stabilization of knowledge sets into a “consensus.” By contrast, various

    imbalances resulting from the actors’ individual learning in different network associations serve

    as the necessary foundation for overcoming the obstacles. This paper examines the evolutionary case

    of China’s drinking water standards in the past 20 years to verify the mechanisms for the emergence

    and surmounting of the obstacles in policy learning from the constructivist perspective. The author

    holds that the new national standards are the product of “environment protection” being translated

    into an issue of “public safety” by newly participating actors. The marginalization of the

    drinking water standards in the two high waves for standardization in the 1970s/1980s and at the

    beginning of the 21st century is also reflected upon. Finally, the paper points out possible

    hidden difficulties in the execution of the new drinking water standards as resistance exists in

    social institutions such as incompleteness in the implementation of the standards and lack of a

    thorough comprehension of “public safety.” 

    Globalization and the New Cultural Specialists: Cultural and Economic Connections
    David Ashley , Yarong Jiang
    2010, 30(4):  52-72. 
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    The purpose of this article is to distinguish between "old" (i.e., modern) academic

    professionals and contemporary (postmodern) academic practitioners— "the new cultural specialists,"

    as we shall call them.  In this essay, we use the sociology of Max Weber and T. Parsons to account

    for the activities of the relatively autonomous "old professionals" and to contrast their conduct

    and social location with the newer specialists.  We then turn to Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel

    Foucault to help explain the dynamics of the new professionals.  Finally, we trace connections

    between these new specialists, globalization and neoMarxist analysis of the "spectacular"

    commodity consumption of signs and leisure (G. Debord).  This paper is to connect "cultural

    theory" with historical materialism.

    The Administrative Otherness in Social Stratification: Lipset’s StructureTension Theory
    Lui PingKeung
    2010, 30(4):  73-90. 
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     This paper begins with an exposition of Lipset’s conception of social stratification as

    a structuretension theory that is most apt for public administration purposes, in an attempt to

    have a social stratification 〖JP2〗theory so as to introduce the concept of “administrative

    otherness.” Then this theory was applied to a historical case, i.e., the 1966 Hong Kong Riot,

    to explain how the social entity of “administrative otherness” had got into it and how the

    “agencystructure” problem was resolved.

    The Endogeneity Problem in Quantitative Analysis: A Review of Estimating Causal Effects of Social Interaction
    Chen Yunsong , Fan Xiaoguang
    2010, 30(4):  91-117. 
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     Causeeffect relationships are the core area in sociological analysis. However,

    sociological analysis based on survey data is confronted by the endogeneity problem which plagues

    causal inferences. Many existing studies aiming at providing explanations for social phenomena

    either merely describes the statistical associations among variables or arrives at problematic

    causal conclusions. Focusing on the social interaction studies, this paper addresses the major

    sources of potential endogeneity biases, namely, the omitted variable bias, selfselection bias

    , sampleselection bias and the simultaneity bias. Useful model identification strategies for

    correcting these problems are reviewed. Based on CGSS2003, this paper also discusses how to

    partially correct for the endogeneity problem through augmenting the volume of survey data.

    On Family, Work, Money, and Morals: Intergenerational Value Differences in China
    Christopher Swader, Yuan Hao
    2010, 30(4):  118-142. 
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    In which ways has China's rapid social change crystallized into differences between its

    generations' values? The significance of intergenerational value gaps in work, family, materialism,

    and individualism is reported based on a mixedmethods (qualitative and quantitative) approach. The

    results of quantitative analysis of the 4th wave (2000) of World Values Survey data in China

    were compared with the 〖JP2〗outcomes of the qualitative semistructured interviews with middle

    aged businessmen and their fathers conducted in Shanghai in late 2005 to see if there were

    intergenerational breaks or continuities in values. It was found that the middleaged cohort,

    compared with the older cohort, was less thriftfocused, more materialistic, more individualistic,

    and less mindful of the parental duty of norm transmission. However, both the middleaged and older

    cohorts valued hard work to an equal extent.

    The Structure of Subjective WellBeing: Diagnosis of the Dual Classification Schema of Affective and Cognitive Elements
    Wang Peigang
    2010, 30(4):  143-162. 
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    The subjective wellbeing in the traditional quality of life perspective consists of the

    affective measurement of happiness and cognitive measurement of satisfaction. But a recent study

    has indicated that this traditional classification schema is substantively faulty. Based on

    CGSS2003 and CGSS2005 survey data from urban China, the current study has confirmed the rightness

    of this traditional classification schema and its feasibility in China. It has also found a rise in

    the subjective wellbeing and happiness of urban residents and a shift in the conception of well

    being from socially experiencing to prudentially cognizing.

    An Exploration of Migrant Workers’ Feelings of Social Expulsion: A Social Network Perspective
    Chen Li
    2010, 30(4):  163-178. 
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    This study found more intense economic expulsion than psychological expulsion felt by the

    migrant workers in Pearl River Delta. From the social network perspective, the migrant workers’

    social networks should help lower their feelings of being socially excluded. However, the networks

    ’ selfexclusiveness and sex homogeneity had the opposite effects. Those migrant workers with

    larger social networks that were high in heterogeneity and powerful in providing resources were less

    likely to feel economic expulsion. Those who perceived themselves occupying important positions in

    their networks and had all their best friends working in the same organizations were less likely to

    feel psychological expulsion than the firsttime workers who came in groups for employment and

    ended up in networks with high sex homogeneity. It seems that migrant workers expanding their

    social interaction and increasing heterogeneity of their social networks will help reduce their

    feelings of being excluded. 

    Tradition Recreation: An Example of Kucong in Zhenyuan County, Yunnan Province
    He Ju
    2010, 30(4):  179-199. 
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    With its administrative power, the state has invested plenty of financial and material

    resources to thoroughly change the Kucong tradition in Zhenyuan County. In the game with the state

    , Zhenyuan County has capitalized on the Kucong tradition for more resources and other benefits

    from the state. The local elites have designed the Kucong tradition in details, coordinated with

    the local government in the game, catered in line with the policies and ideas of the state, and

    established their own name. As local people, the Kucong are not the passive but the main body who

    practice the tradition. In the field of “tradition recreation”, these four hierarchical forces

    of state, locality, elite, and populace interact with one another, forming a relationship net

    with some tension. All the four together determine the developmental direction of the tradition.

    In this context, the tradition is not fractured but continuous. The tension between the four

    hierarchical forces reflects the complexity of the statesociety relationship.

    Sufferings and Religious Growth: Probing into the Unintended Consequences of Religious Suppression
    Lu Yunfeng
    2010, 30(4):  200-216. 
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    Through comparative history studies, this paper seeks to reveal the logics beneath the

    growth of suppressed religions, holding that suppression can lead to some unintended consequences.

    Repression are helpful because it not only can induce suppressed religions to create adaptive

    doctrines, but also can reduce the risk of the uncertainty in religious goods and mitigate free

    riding through creating a social barrier that filters out halfhearted members. In addition,

    suppression drives religious groups to adopt institutional innovations to sustain the networks, to

    keep the followers’ morale and to avoid detection. The sustained networks make massive recruitment

    possible. All of these unwanted consequences of religious suppression, which fall out of the

    prediction of religious regulators, contribute to the vitality of suppressed religion.

    An Overview of the CuttingEdge Topics and Developments in 2008 Sociological Studies Abroad
    Ma Rong,Liang Maochun,Ma Xuefeng,Zuliyati,Yang Miaoyan,and Zhao Rui,
    2010, 30(4):  217-241. 
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