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Table of Content

    20 November 2013, Volume 33 Issue 6
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    Articles

    The Concept of “Society” in Durkheim’s Early Social Theory
    LI Yingfei
    2013, 33(6):  1-29. 
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    Durkheim’s early work on the theory of “society” was in response to the predicament in reality caused by the abstract individualism which had evolved from the doctrine of natural rights represented by Rousseau. There were two specific aspects in the predicament.First,lack of cohesiveness inFrench politics and society after the Revolutionindicated that political revolution or reform guided by Rousseau’s doctrine of natural rights had not only caused failure in the political ideals of social contracts but also a disordered society. Second, bankruptciesof industrial and commercial enterprises and the conflicts between employers and employees resulting from the development of modern industry that came along with the Revolution alsoindicated that the abstract naturalrights led people down into anomie situations instead of bringing them social welfare. As seen by Durkheim, all of these rooted inthe moral dilemma of an abstract personalityhypothesis since Rousseau.
    To overcome this moral dilemma of abstract personality, Durkheim learned from Comte and recognized that “society” was more fundamental than politics, i.e., a political system was simply an expression of the social system at a particular stage of civilization.Based on this, Durkheim followed the tradition of the social sciences in France and incorporated the argument onle corps social from SaintSimon, Comte, and Spencer, trying to dispute the natural rights’ view of social artificiality and demonstrate that human rights originated in society. Moreover, from the perspective of the collective conscience, Durkheim demonstratedthe spiritual characteristics of society, and on this basis,explainedhow to rebuild the moral authorityin modern secular society.
    In the final section, this paper discusses the problems from the incompleteness in Durkheim’s early theoretical framework, i.e., the way by which individuals got connected to society.

    Legitimacy Mobilization in Decoupling: A Grounded Theory Analysis of a University Incubator in Southern China
    WANG Chenwei, WANG Luhao
    2013, 33(6):  30-58. 
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    Decoupling from the institutional myth and reconstructing legitimacy are two central issues in organizational sociology studies as well as the main focus in the incubator development in science and technology in China. Existing research that emphasizes the functional feature of organizations themselves and the availability of social and cultural recourses, however, cannot explain well how Chinese university incubators can decouple from the institutional environment that has been called a “liner model” of innovation without any legitimacy imbalance. This study applied grounded theory analysis to a successful university incubator in Southern China and found that, when confronting the tremendous pressure from the myths of the institutional environment and experiencing failure to achieve the economic efficiency during the early stage, an organization had to first complete legitimation before formal institutional construction. The success of this incubator was primarily due to the achievement of the moral legitimacy for the existing alumni network that had already generated unique trust and then the establishment of the pragmaticlegitimacy by taking opportunities to get multiple projects effectively completed. Creating the image of the sole leader with charisma and advocating the obscure idea named “neither fish nor fowl” were the crucial sensemaking parts in the reconstruction process, which was in fact inevitably to recouple with a bigger and broader institutional field. In this sense, legitimacyrebuildingtook place both internally and externally. We confirmed that, in addition to the very important role of the charismatic leader in legitimacy mobilization as other studies on Chinese society had observed,  more attention should be given to other mediators, especially the nonhuman actors (actants), since not only can they block the pressure from the myths of the external institutional environment to just allow the needed legitimate resources filtered in but also provide freedom for actors to work creatively internally without the danger of defocusing. This is exactly what Scandinavian institutionalism is calling for research.
    The Mythic Narrative: Ethnic PsychoCultural Agenda beyond Western ClinicBased Psychotherapeutic Approach for PopulationBased PostTraumatic Psychological Rehabilitation
    WANG Shuguang, Daphne Keats
    2013, 33(6):  59-92. 
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    Posttraumatic psychological recovery is, in essence, psychology of the collective solving the problem of cultural exploration and construction, an issue in cultural anthropology. However, the topic of utilizing cultural experiences is being replaced by the simplistic doctorclient clinical model of providing treatments with psychological counseling. The longitudinal study of the indigenous cultural practice in helping children of Qiang, an ethnic minority group, achieve their psychological recovery post the traumatic experience in the disastrous earthquake on May 12, 2008 has indicated that mythic narratives in the Qiang cultural context can successfully turn the traditional culture into a variable in studies of mental health promotion. This local successful case underscores the significance of creatively utilizing indigenous cultural experiences in theory building and practice. First of all, it places an emphasis on the indigenous supportive evidence. Strategies to help children with cultural recovery are based on the large volume of past research on health promotion in the southwestern minority regions. The large volume of the evidence from that research area has produced strong evidence for the role of language. Culturally appropriate, effective interventions must be based on the psychology of a specific ethnic group and be directed by their cultural needs. Then it is possible to integrate the narrative strategy for behavioral change into the native discourse context. Secondly, children’s psychological recovery is, in essence, a promotion for rights and benefits based on extensive social exchanges or social links via mythic narratives by children. It is not a personal mental state devoid of real life expressed subjectively and individually. Thirdly, effective interventions must be based on the extensive participation and support by communities, including families, cultural chiefs, important community representatives, leaders of grassroots organizations, and peers. It is not just psychological counseling and individual exchanges independent of the indigenous cultural discourse context. Finally, it is contended that, in order to build indigenous experiences that are effective and appropriate, in addition to learning from the experience of applying Western theories to traditional cultures, it is important to go beyond the Western individualistic principle embedded in the psychological treatment strategies that has been greatly challenged in the Chinese traditional culture characterized of collectivism. This shows the urgency and importance for us to comprehensively correct the imported knowledge paradigm from an indigenous perspective.
    Fighting with Rationality and Legality in Peasants’ RightProtection Activities and a Theoretical Interpretation: Insights from Two Cases of Land Expropriation
    QIN Cong
    2013, 33(6):  93-121. 
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    In the academia, the rightprotection activities by Chinese peasants have been categorized as “resistance on a daily basis”, “fighting with legal rights”, and “going by regulations”. The present study was based on two land expropriation cases in northeast Guangxi. The study revealed that the general features of the rightprotection activities by the peasants involved could be summarized as “fighting with rationality and legality”, the expression of which was some kind in between “resistance on a daily basis” and “fighting with legal rights” within the scope of being “rational” and “legal” when determining the rationales for behavior, selecting strategies, and setting goals. To be more specific, the peasants actively used the strategy of delaying the handover of the land to be expropriated for a better price, adopted the behavioral strategy based on both rationality and legality in collective actions, ensured control over the situation, and tried to avoid collisions with the local governments. This kind of resistance had its root in the rural culture and the tension due to the legitimacy of the Chinese government’s strong need for social stability and the local government’s desire for economic achievements and its efforts to maintain stability, all of which had led to a kind of “unspoken agreement” to let the peasants in the rightprotection activities have an equal voice in the dialogue with the local government. When the government comprised a bit, the peasants made advances; when the government became firm, the peasants compromised a bit. Both sides utilized their respective political and social resources to fight for a resolution that would be in the best interest to itself. The pragmatism in the peasants’ rightprotection activities was the survival strategy and action logic of these peasants who were living in the peripheral region of the structural network woven by power and interests.
    Keywords：

    Market Transition and Vertical Occupational Gender Segregation
    TONG Mei, WANG Hongbo
    2013, 33(6):  122-138. 
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    Occupational gender segregation is an important index of gender inequality in the labor market. If male and female workers participate in different occupations, sociologists call it horizontal occupational gender segregation; if male and female workers in the same occupation occupy positions of different ranks, it is known as vertical occupational gender segregation. At present, domestic academic work has largely been on the status and trend in horizontal occupational gender segregation. But weakened horizontal occupational segregation does not necessarily mean weakened vertical occupational gender segregation. Logical fallacy may occur in reasoning, that is, using the gender data from occupation distributions to reason for a conclusion that gender segregation has been weakened. Therefore, the research question in this paper is: Does the vertical segregation with a bias against the female exist in the occupations without much horizontal gender segregation ? The relationship between the market transition and the gender equality is the current hot topic in the academic circles, about which scholars have different opinions. So, this paper also attempts to analyze the relationship from the trend of vertical occupational gender segregation during the market transition. This paper reports the results of an  analysis of 2009 JSNET Survey of Eight Cities. First of all, female workers were concentrated at lowerlevel positions in all kinds of occupations. Vertical segregation by sex existed even in gender neutral occupations, meaning that more women were at the positions of lower ranks. Second, the finding from the analysis of the impact of the market transition on vertical occupational segregation by sex indicated that such segregation was worse in the occupations outside the system (nongovernmental) than that in the occupations within the system. In other words, more women outside the system were working at lowerrank positions than those within the system. Marketization had intensified gender inequality in the labor market as seen in the vertical occupational segregation by sex, particularly so to the women working in the occupations outside the system.
    The Measurement of Chinese Family Happiness
    WANG Guangzhou, WANG Jun
    2013, 33(6):  139-160. 
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    Subjective happiness, health and life satisfaction are usually measured by selfreported ratings. However, studies have shown that, in this type of measurement of subjective indices, there is a problem of “selfrating heterogeneity”, that is, the same score given by different respondents may very well represent quite different states in reality. This has been extensively evidenced in health measures. Considering the fact of family being the basic unit in the traditional Chinese society, measuring family happiness is, therefore, of unique significance. Taking the measurement of family happiness as an example, this study used the survey data from a representative national sample to examine if there was a problem of “selfrating heterogeneity” and if so, how to solve that problem. The findings revealed clear existence of this problem, including significant differences in the family happiness standards used by the people in urban vs. rural areas, and between people of different ages. To address the problem of “selfrating heterogeneity,” this study employed measurement anchors and used the “equal ratio method” to standardize the family happiness scores. Then the factors that influenced the “selfrating heterogeneity” were analyzed and the standardized scores were compared with the raw scores to determine the difference. Finally, the hierarchical linear model was applied to the examination of the impact of community integration on residents’ family happiness and the standardized and raw scores were compared as well.
    An Analysis of the WithinRegional and CrossRegional Variations in the Generalized Trust of Urban Residents: The Resource Factor Theory
    AO Ddan, ZOU Yuchun, GAO Xiang
    2013, 33(6):  161-179. 
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     In modern society, individuals are likely to get involved with more and more strangers in life and work. Individuals’ generalized trust for strangers will impact their individual behavior and the social structure in the entire society as well. There is a pressing demand for research on generalized trust to get a clear and comprehensive picture of it. However, such research is rare in China, and more so in the area of regional variations in generalized trust. Furthermore, the separation of the macroperspective from the microperspective, it is hard to integrate the various factors that are influencing people’s generalized trust to reach a conclusion. Therefore, this study divided regional variations in generalized trust into two categories of withinregional and crossregional. On the basis of the literature, the authors proposed the resource factor theory (i.e., variations in resourcefulness affect trust) to explain the emergence of differences in generalized trust. This study divided resources into public resources and private resources, with the latter part further divided into obtainable resources (socioeconomic status) and loanable resources (social capital). Logistic regression model was applied in the analysis of the 2003 CGSS data. Here are the findings: (1) The rank order of Chinese urban residents’ generalized trust from the highest to the lowest is as follows: the east, the middle, and the west. Also, variations in the generalized trust were correlated with public resources. (2) The two types of resources at the microlevel (including individuals’ obtained resources and borrowed resources) were both positively correlated with the urban residents’ generalized trust within their regions but the degree of their effects varied with the resources at the macrolevel. 
    Practice of Mutual Assistance and Cooperation as an Ideological Construction: A Sociological Analysis of Liu Qing’s Novel Cultivating Millet Log (Zhonggu Ji)
    LUO Lin
    2013, 33(6):  180-216. 
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    This paper intends to explore a question in the history of ideology through discussing the ideological expression infarmers’ mutual assistance and cooperation: How is that kind of cooperation in the middle of the 20th century comprehended in the revolutionary context of contemporary China? What did that idealized social practice designed for such cooperation look like, what kind of ideology did it express, and what logic did it follow? What situations in the rural areas were caused by bringing the ideology and logic into effect? What kind of transformation happened? What kind of paradox appeared during the transformation? I chose Cultivating Millet Log (Zhonggu Ji) to be my target of analysis, a novel written by the contemporary Chinese revolutionary fictionist Liu Qing, who is wellknown for his stories of the cooperation process in rural China.
    Firstly, the paper explains why Liu Qing’s novel can by regarded as a subject of studying the history of ideology by examining the author’s creative ideology and methods based on socialist realism. Secondly, the paper analyzes Liu Qing’s novel Cultivating Millet Log (Zhonggu Ji) that was fabricated on the theme of peasants’ activities for mutual assistance and cooperation. According to the action topics related to the ideology and practice of mutual assistance/corporation as described in the novel, the author analyzes the logics and mechanisms for the formation and transformation of this ideological construction.
    There are two major findings. First, in the mainstream ideological context of political and class analysis at that time, the strategy of “getting organized” intended to improve productive efficiency actually hit hard on the primary productive force, namely, the middle peasants, which in turn disparaged the rural economic ethics that had been functioning as the “element to stimulate labor” in the productive activities of the rural laborers. Second, during the practice of replacing “for the personal interest” with the idealisticmorality of “for the public interest,” the hidden logic to have “the government” replace“the public” was carried out, which consequently led to a new “differential mode of association” that centered around “governmentasagency.” Formation of the “organizational mode of association” was thus obstructed.