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Table of Content

    20 November 2011, Volume 31 Issue 6
    Articles
    Collective Social Capital and Its Effect on Community Participation: A Multilevel Analysis
    HUANG Rong-Gui, GUI Yong
    2011, 31(6):  1-21. 
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     Consequences of social capital is an important issue in social capital research. Current studies suggest that collective social capital of urban communities in China facilitates residents’ community participation. This paper argues that the multidimensional nature of both social capital and community participation may not guarantee the unidirectionality of the relationship of the two. Multilevel logistic analysis of the survey datacollected in Shanghai from 2006 to 2007 confirms a complex relationship between collective social capital and three types of community participation (contentious, institutional, and public community participation). Moreover, the multilevel logistic models demonstrate that more than 60 percent of neighborhoodlevel variance can be explained by collective social capital, which means that. community participation is influenced not only by the residents’ personal characteristics but also by their neighborhood characteristics.

    Causal Mechanisms between Social Trust and Community Governance
    Chen Jie,Huhe Narisong,Lu Chunlong
    2011, 31(6):  22-40. 
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    This paper describes the mechanisms through which social trust affects grassroots community governance. We argue that this influence needs some intermediate channels to get fulfilled. Based on the past theories and empirical findings, we have selected and tested three such candidates, namely, election quality, activism, and civic organization. Our findings indicate that there do exist intermediate channels between social trust and local governance; in other words, social trust does have importance influence over community governance, but its impact is not direct. To be more specific, generalized trust is positively and significantly correlated with the quality of election, which in turn correlates positively with community governance; whereas particularized trust is negatively correlated with the quality of election and the creation of homeowners’ organizations, which in turn correlate negatively with the governance of community residential committees. In general, these findings resonate with the recent methodological trend in social sciences: that is, giving more attention to the study of micro causal mechanisms than macrolevel descriptions.

    The State-Society Relations in a Crisis: An Investigation of the “Combat against SARS” by Local Communities in Shanghai
    GENG Shu, HU Yu-Song
    2011, 31(6):  41-73. 
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    Most of the studies on local governance in urban China conclude that the state has always been dominating the society. However, almost all of them are based on issues not directly related to the interests of the residents, therefore, unable to provide strong evidence for the existence of a dominating state. This study investigated the statesociety relations in the SARS crisis, which had triggered great social fear of a threat to the residents’ lives, in the context of how urban communities in Shanghai dealt with that crisis. We found that the “combat against SARS” in Shanghai was virtually under the control of the state, with the residents playing only a passive, cooperative role. Their initiative participation was very limited. In tactics, the state controlled the channel for “theme construction” through regulating the main media on one hand, and restricted the channel for “sociopolitical participation” with the assistance from community construction on the other hand, the result of which was the state’s legitimacy and controlling power being reinforced and the institutional structure of “a strong state, a weak society” being established in the process of dealing with a crisis.

    Social Demand, Resources Supply, Institutional Transition, and Development of Civil Organizations: Based on Chinese ProvinceLevel Evidence
    LI Guo-Wu, LI Lu
    2011, 31(6):  74-102. 
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    The explanation of the differences in the development of civil organizations is from three theoretical perspectives of social demand, supply, and institutionalism, which served as the basis for our research hypotheses about the development of civil organizations during the transitional period in China. These hypotheses were tested using provincelevel panel data from 2001 to 2008. The results showed that each of the three perspectives had some explanatory power; however, distinctive factors influenced three different types of civil organizations (Social Groups, Private NonEnterprise Organizations, and Foundations). The development of civil organizations was embedded in the social contexts where they were located, which not only reflected the regional structure of social demands and its residents’ resources but also was affected by the transitional process of the economic and social security institutions in the particular region.

    The “State” Perceived by Villagers: An Investigation of a Village’s Prevention of SARS in North China
    HU Zong-Ze
    2011, 31(6):  103-129. 
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    This paper examines ethnographically the efforts made by different groups of people in a North China village to prevent SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) from spreading into the community and their sociopolitical implications. Based on participant observation and indepth interviews, it investigates the Chinese state from two angles: everyday state practices on the one hand and locals’ views of “the state” on the other. The local SARS prevention can be roughly divided into two stages: (a) villagers’ selfprotection,(b) joint prevention efforts by local state officials and ordinary villagers. The paper concludes that the Chinese state, in villagers’ eyes, is not only an integral system of bureaucracy but also an ensemble of differentiated and often conflicting organizations, sites, and processes. More importantly, it has a face and image that changes frequently.

    From Ascribed to Acquired:Migrant Workers’ Social Networks and Migrant Integration in China
    YUE Zhong-Shan, LI Shu-Zhu, JIN Xiao-Yi, Marcus W. Feldman
    2011, 31(6):  130-152. 
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    Why are the Rural Migrant Workers so Prone to Job Change: Job Mobility of Rural Migrant Workers within the Constraint of Hukou System
    ZHANG Chun-Ni
    2011, 31(6):  153-177. 
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    The labor force market in China is segregated along three dividing lines: being inside or outside the redistributive state system, having high or low human capital under the market system, and whether registered with a rural or an urban identity in the hukou system (household registration system). The third division is believed to be the key factor that has been associated with the rural migrant workers’ frequent job changes. This study adopts the model of event history analysis to compare the job mobility of urbanites and rural migrants and to examine the latter group’s job mobility patterns in different historical periods. The results show that, although human capital and work sector influence job changes, domicile discrimination contributes uniquely to rural migrants’ job stability. Its impact, however, is decreasing with the development of society.

    Labor Control and Resistance: The Dynamics between Employers and Home Workers in the Labor Process of Domestic Work
    SU Yi-Hui
    2011, 31(6):  178-205. 
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    Based on the theory of labor process, this paper uses Braverman’s “conception” and “execution,” and also, Foucault, Goffman and Hochschild’s theories to discuss the dynamics between employers and home workers in the labor process of domestic work, their strategies and actions taken to keep the control over this labor process, and. the role of ideology in it. The main point of this paper is that the“conception” and “execution” of the employers are separated in the labor process of domestic work. In order to have their own needs satisfied, employers try to make their home workers’ “conception” detached from “execution” with such strategies as “routinizing scheduling,” “panopticon like surveillance,” and “emotional management.” Meanwhile, in order to keep “conception” and “execution” unified, home workers deploy strategies of “jobhopping,” “bargaining,” and “upfront/back stage building” to snap back the control of their labor process. However, home workers may give up their control under ideological influences.

    Social Science, Value Judgement and the Value of Science: On Strauss’s Discussion of Weber
    YANG Zi-Fei
    2011, 31(6):  206-223. 
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    In Strauss’s opinion, Weber’s situation is tragic: He was destined to believe in science, but in the influence of historicism, he had to deeply suspect the value of science. Strauss discovered the fundamental root of Weber’s perplexes through a topdown thinking process: Weber insisted on the valuefree principle because the conflicts between ultimate values were inapprehensible by human reason, and the latter was incapable of proving its own value  when being challenged by revelation due to the fact that Weber’s understanding of science and its situation was limited . Then Strauss  tried to transcend Weber’s abyss through a bottomup thinking process: The prephilosophical natural world was the common origin of philosophy and revelation; it was through political philosophy (which inevitably required value judgment) that  a skeptical philosophy emerged to describe but not to  explain the riddle of being, which made revelation possible and necessary. Thus, the value of philosophy was established in the forever existing conflicts.