Table of Content

20 May 2012, Volume 32 Issue 3

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Articles

Towards an OpenSource Social Science: The Replication Study in Quantitative Social Analysis

CHEN Yun-Song, TUN Xiao-Gang

2012, 32(3):  1-23. 

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The development of quantitative analysis in social science calls for the establishment of an open and transparent mechanism to allow research data and models to be shared to the community, and the research findings to be verify and elaborated by others. The core in this practice is replication studies in social sciences. In this essay, we review the discussion and practices of replication studies in western social sciences and highlight its significance in promoting quantitative social science research in China.  Why is the replication study necessary? First, the collectivity of social science research suggests the research process should be transparent; Second, the principle of parsimony in quantitative social analysis requires the verification of research process; Third, the issue of endogeneity calls for extension of the past quantitative social analysis; Four, as a matter of fact, the rate of successful verification in published social science literature is low. Fifth, replication study is important to the teaching and training of quantitative social science; and finally, replication study can facilitate the professionalization of quantitative sociology and make us of latedevelopment advantages. Why is replication study feasible? First, the nature of quantitative data suggests that the results be verifiable; second, the development of techniques in quantitative social research makes it possible to extend the replications; third, internet provides an easy platform for sharing data and working programs; third, the practice of replication studies in other disciplines such as economics in other countries has provided valuable experience; and finally, replicable studies can increase the academic reputation of the author and the journal. Notwithstanding what are said above, there are many concerns that need to be addressed in promoting replication study. The first is the ownership of the data analyzed. The author may not have rights to share the data with other colleagues. The second issue is that it may bring extra burden to the authors, reviewers, and replicators. There might also be issues related to the sharing of the programs, the choice between the sharing of original data and working data, and results from replication studies may lead to pressures on the authors and personal attacks. We use two empirical examples as the template how to conduct the replication and the extension. The first example by Chen, Volker and Flap (2011), using more sophisticated modeling to replicate a study by two Dutch sociologists on how the use of social capital affects the attainment of the first job in East Germany. The second example is a rejoinder to the replication results on how selectivity of entry into the private sector affects earnings inequality in urban China. Both examples show how the replication and extensions help to advance the knowledge in the field. The paper concludes with the consensus and practical protocol that should be established in the academia of sociology.

A Social Network Model of the JobSearch Process: Testing a Relational Effect Hypothesis

BIAN Yan-Jie, ZHANG Wen-Hong, CHENG Cheng

2012, 32(3):  24-37. 

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In analyzing the 2009 JobNet Survey conducted in eight largest Chinese cities, we distinguished the measures of tie strength from relational resources to study their effects on the wages upon hiring. We found that tie strength and relational resources were statistically correlated but could not substitute for each other. Strong ties were likely to bring in influential connections and weak ties were likely to generate informational resources. With no impact on the wages upon hiring around the onset of the economic reform, informational resources started to show a positive effect when the reform was furthered, especially when China became a member of the World Trade Organization. The impact of influential connections, on the other hand, was pretty significant around the onset of market reforms but was suppressed to some extent after China entered the WTO. In conclusion, three macro factors of market competition, institutional uncertainty, and denseness of social relationships might be the causes for this change pattern, which should be the focus for scholarly research and policy adjustments.

A MicroAnalysis of the JobSearch Process: A Structural Property Model

ZHANG Shun, GUO Xiao-Xian

2012, 32(3):  38-54. 

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Jobsearch process and status attainment are crucial aspects of labor market research and have long attracted scholarly attention from both economists and sociologists. Since 1960s, research in both economics and sociology has addressed these issues from different perspectives, of which the human capital theory, statusattainment model, and labor market segmentation theory are important parts. This paper puts these theoretical perspectives in the jobsearch process against the background of China’s social transformation. Based on the classic theories, the study is about the differences in the influencing forces for attaining individual economic and social statuses. This paper has three main objectives: 1) to differentially treat attaining social status and economic status due to their different mechanisms; 2) to apply the classic theories to the microprocess of job search in transitional China and explain the variability in status attainment outcomes with the structural property indices at the point of hiring so that the empirical results are more convincing; and 3) to construct a status attainment model for the jobsearching process in an institutionally segmented labor market in the context of transitional Chinese society. The main findings show that once structural property variables are held constant, the educational rate of return is significantly smaller, indicating the importance of structural factors in status attainment. Ascribed factors have significantly different effects on both economic and social statuses in contrast to achieved factors. In an institutionally segmented labor market, ascribed and achieved factors differ significantly in their impact on jobsearch outcomes.

A MacroMicro Interactive Analysis of the JobSearch Process: A Multilevel Model

LIANG Yu-Cheng

2012, 32(3):  55-77. 

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Based on the New Institutionalism Theory’s perspective that connects macro and micro levels, this paper presents an analysis of how social capital affects the jobsearch process in Chinese large cities where marketization is under full play. There have been few empirical studies with a macromicro framework, and social capital as a multilevel theoretical concept across both macro and micro levels has not been a focus in research. In this paper, through Manski’s interactive model (1993), the collective effectiveness of social capital at the macro level and individuals’ social capital at the micro level are linked to examine how the former influences the utilization of the latter.Based on the cohesive relationship between the personal use and macrolevel collective use of social capital, and the correlated effects of the ingroup similar individuals’ behaviors in the same institutional environment, this paper has made two propositions about the interaction between capital’s collective effects and the endogenous preference of capital’s correlated effects. Thus, an individual’s social capital effects in one’s job seeking are analyzed within the framework of the macrolevel social environment with an attempt to explain that, during the social transformation of China, individuals’ social capital and the decisionmaking of how to use it reflect their endogenous preference of the market system in its evolution, which in turn promotes the development of the market system itself. The empirical analysis has confirmed the commonality and cohesiveness of the functional mechanism of the social capital in job seeking on both the individual and macro levels. The labor market’s positive attitude towards social capital may have increased the probability of using social capital at the individual level and the effective endogenous preference of it. During the establishment of the market system, its development tends to reinforce the preference of the actors in the market. Developments of the three important properties of the market system, namely, the degree of marketization, market uncertainty, and market regularity, all have positive effects on individuals’ incomes, providing evidence of the cohesive relationship in the evolution of the macro system leading to the individuals’ system preference. Bian Yanjie’ hypothesis of an inverted Ucurve about the dynamics of social networking space has been confirmed, as well.

An Analysis of SelfEmployers’ Social Networks

WANG Wen-Ban, DIAO Yan-Dong

2012, 32(3):  78-97. 

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Based on the 2009 JobNet Survey conducted in eight cities, an analysis of selfemployers’ social networks and their effects was performed, with an focus on the composition of the selfemployer group, the roles of social networks in the process of raising investment funds and seizing business opportunities, and the impact of businessconnection networks on business performance. Results showed that selfemployers were playing an important role in China’s marketization. To be more specific, first, the selfemployers’ social networks, as compared with those of the employed, had unique features: The average age and educational level of the employers significantly differed from those of the employed; the network size and job variety of the selfemployers were better than those of the employed although the differences at the network top layer and network diversity displayed complexity, with the former being more dependent on restaurantrelated networks. Second, the selfemployers’ social networks functioned differently in obtaining starting funds and business opportunity: more crucial in obtaining business opportunities so as to increase profit returns than securing funds. Third, unique businessconnection networks were formed in the process of selfemployment and these networks had positive effects on the selfemployers’ business performance outcomes. If business performance was measured by selfemployers’ highest assets, it was found to be positively affected by network size, network composition, network diversity, and network resources. To the selfemployers, strong ties led to business funds, but weak ties and mixture of strong and weak ties were the key to business opportunities and better business performance.

Disembedded Employment Relationship and Turnover Intention of PeasantWorkers：Based on a Survey of PeasantWorkers in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta

SUN Zhong-Wei, YANG Xiao-Feng

2012, 32(3):  98-128. 

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Since 2004, labor shortage has become prominent and it is the reality that China’s economy must face. Under this condition, it is of great significance to discuss the turnover intention of peasantworkers, an area that has been virtually not studied yet. This study was based on the survey of more than 2,000 peasantworkers in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta in 2010, conducted jointly by the Department of Sociology and Social Work of Sun YatSen University and the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University. The focus of the study was to discuss the turnover intention of peasantworkers according to the perspectives from the theory of job embeddedness. Our analysis revealed that 65.4 percent of the peasantworkers intended to leave in the next five years, with the second generation of peasantworkers having a higher intention to leave, those in the Pearl River Delta wanting more to leave than those in the Yangtze River Delta, but married couples, especially when both in the same city, having lower intention to leave. What had led to the peasantworkers’ desire to leave？The logit regression model found that job embeddedness had a significant effect on peasantworkers’ intention to leave. To be specific, the higher the connection between the job and nonjob areas, fitness, and investments, the lower turnover intention of the peasantworkers. Putting the job embeddedness theory and the reality of the Chinese peasantworkers’ employment relationship together, this paper concludes that the current peasantworkers’ employment relationship is of disembedded nature. The paper further tries to describe the definition, dimensions, and consequences of disembedded employment relationship, which is seen in the three aspects of work, communities, and institutions. Specifically, this means that the subjects, forms, and contents of employment relationship are no longer constrained by the interpersonal relationships, organizational structures, or institutional arrangements inside the workplace; nor by the social connections across communities and cities, cultures, social structures, or public services outside the workplace. These are the main reasons for the high turnover intention and turnover rates of peasantworkers.

Media Mobilization, DemolitionResistant Families, and Contentious Politics：Reanalysis of the Event of Yihuang

LV De-Wen

2012, 32(3):  129-170. 

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The contention event of Yihuang in September，2010 is of great significance because it has changed the contention routine in contemporary China by adopting a new type of contentious politics. Before it became the media focus, Yihuang event was just another ordinary occurrence of residents resisting demolition of their houses, a part of the subaltern politics. The main contention strategies taken by the families under the order to move typically including negotiation with the local government in charge of demolition, intercepting visits to appeal, and seeking media attention. These are “weapons of the weak”, parochial, localspecific, and bifurcated; therefore, of low salience and poor coordination, usually unsuccessful to achieve contention objectives. This time, the Zhong family adopted an extreme contention means of selfimmolation. Since the occurrence of this event, the largescale involvement of the media has presented the inherent tension of policies to the public, and the demolitionresistant families (who do not want to move) have taken the political opportunity to innovate contentious performances, pushing it toward its extremity and turning the event of Yihuang into a part of a professional social movement to bring about institutional changes and protect the vulnerable groups’ interests. Thus, the event of Yihuang becomes cosmopolitan, modular, and autonomous. After the local government fully met the demands of the demolitionresistant families, the event of Yihuang demobilized essentially due to the competition between the contentious families and the media rather than inappropriate institutionalization. Obviously, the media were not successful in achieving their contention objects related to institutional changes because of the existence of the institutional fundamentals that led to the event of Yihuang. The demolition system and the petition system are typical low functional systems, incapable of regulating the opportunistic behaviors of the local governments or controlling the demolitionresistant families’ opportunistic violence aiming for benefits. After the conclusion of the Yihuang event, the same political structure of opportunities still exist.

The Danger of “Despotism”: The Rural Order Reflected in Violent CrimesOn “State Laws vs. Folk Laws”

CHU Hui-Juan

2012, 32(3):  171-197. 

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The investigation of the violent crimes that had turned civil cases to criminal cases in four prisons in Northeast China has discovered a special kind of disputes in Rural China. Its extensive occurrence signifies failure of the orderrestorative power of folk forces in specific contexts. This kind of disputes has not yet been dealt with or taken in by the state legal system. This paper analyzes seven cases in depth to reveal the realistic picture of the rural order behind disputes of this kind. Contrary to the assumptions of the traditional folk legal theories, the “external nature” in the state legal order provides a feasible channel for the increasing number of “strangers” to obtain protection. However, execution of the state laws depends upon the political operations at the local level, whose coordinating role relies upon the cooperation of the folk order. Failure of the folk order in mediating disputes forces state laws to intervene directly to the individuals’ actual needs but the ineffectiveness in the intervention in turn heightens the disappointment of the individuals in the state laws. Meanwhile, the close ties between the state legal system and the local political operations are likely to lead to suspicion of the independence of the state laws. In such a context, “despotism” may turn up to endanger the rural society. The powerful persons may use the state’s power that can penetrate and control society to undermine the power of the traditional order in a topdown fashion but at the same time they may undermine the legitimacy of the state’s legal order in a bottomup fashion via the same origin shared by the state laws and the state power.

From the Controversy of Structure to the Action Analysis: A Literature Review on the Chinese NGOs Study in Abroad

ZHANG Jin-Gen

2012, 32(3):  198-123. 

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The discussion on Chinese NGOs is a popular issue among oversea China experts. Considering the complexity and multidimension of Chinese NGOs, Oversea scholars in contemporary China study have different understandings and arguments for the development and the effects of Chinese NGOs, Which trigger a series of academic debates. This paper employs literature analysis method and categorizes their arguments into two dimensions: Structure study on the basis of civil society and corporatism theory, action analysis on the basis of NGO’s behaviors. Existing literatures are also sorted within their dimension to display its whole picture in this research field. Based on the dual separation of“statesociety”, it is the research purport of “structure study” of pondering the question at the state politics and power configuration level，which focus on the distribution of right between state and socieity. The research intent of“action study” is to discern and seize the interwoven mechanism, strategy and way between state and society from the medium even microscopic perspective, which emphasize focusing on the behaviors of NGO.Despite there are much differences between the two kinds of study dimensions, There is also much complementary between structure study and action study. Finally, this paper also lays out the author’s arguments for this research topic in terms of abovementioned literature review.

Materiality and Materialization: The Theory of Body in Bodies that Matter

FAN Xuan

2012, 32(3):  224-242. 

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