Table of Content

20 May 2015, Volume 35 Issue 3

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A Theory of Social Performance: Modeling Cultural Pragmatics between Ritual and Strategy

Jeffrey Charles Alexander

2015, 35(3):  1-36. 

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From its very beginnings, the social study of culture has been polarized between structuralist theories that treat meaning as a text and investigate the patterning that provides relative autonomy and pragmatist theories that treat meaning as emerging from the contingencies of individual and collective action—socalled practices—and that analyze cultural patterns as reflections of power and material interest. In this article, I present a theory of cultural pragmatics that transcends this division, bringing meaning structures, contingency, power, and materiality together in a new way. My argument is that the materiality of practices should be replaced by the more multidimensional concept of performances. Drawing on the new field of performance studies, cultural pragmatics demonstrates how social performances, whether individual or collective, can be analogized systematically to theatrical ones. After defining the elements of social performance, I suggest that these elements have become “defused” as societies have become more complex. Performances are successful only insofar as they can “refuse” these increasingly disentangled elements. In a fused performance, audiences identify with actors, and cultural scripts achieve verisimilitude through effective miseenscène. Performances fail when this relinking process is incomplete: the elements of performance remain apart, and social action seems inauthentic and artificial, failing to persuade. Refusion, by contrast, allows actors to communicate the meanings of their actions successfully and thus to pursue their interests effectively.


 Refashioning Sociological Imagination：Linguality/Visuality Dualism and the Iconic Turn in Cultural Sociology

Dominik Bartmanski

2015, 35(3):  37-66. 

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 One of the key challenges of meaningcentered cultural sociology is to face the findings of contemporary anthropology, archaeology, art history and material culture studies. Specifically, the increasingly pressing task is to recognize and amend the explanatory limitations of the linguistic/textual framework laid bare by those disciplines. The traditional structuralist focus on discursive codes and the assumption of arbitrariness of cultural sign is of limited service in understanding the power of complex representational economies and especially in the task of explaining its variability. The language and communicationcentered framework typically ignores the fact that most signifiers credited with causal social power are inescapably embedded in openended but not unbounded structures of affect and materiality. There is ample evidence delivered by the recent studies within the aforementioned fields that many such signifiers are“not just the garb of meaning,”to use the insightful phrase of the American anthropologist Webb Keane.
Rather, the significatory patterns and their material and sensuous entanglements coconstitute meanings that inform social action. Therefore more integrative and multidimensional models of culture in action are needed. Some specific new explanatory models have been explicitly formulated by a series of intertwined conceptual “turns” in human sciences: material, performative, spatial and iconic, among others. By showing that meanings (depth) are always embedded in and enacted by the concrete assemblages of materiality and corporeality (surface), they enable sociologists to transcend the linguistic/textual bias of classical structuralist hermeneutics. This paper discusses the importance of iconicity for developing such an integrative perspective without abandoning some constitutive insights of the linguistic turn.
I focus on the key transformative works of contemporary scholars like Daniel Miller, Webb Keane, Ian Hodder, Christopher Pinney, Ian Woodward, Jeffrey Alexander as well as on my own research to demonstrate the so conceived complexity of culture as causal social force. In particular, I aim at elaborating a key principle of material culture studies that different orders of semiosis are differently subject to determination and/or autonomous logic, and thus responsive to distinct modes of “social construction” and historical transformation. We need to keep paying attention to the Austinian question of how to do things with words but we cannot keep doing it as if things social were at the same time not done with images, objects, places, and bodies and all that their character and use imply. Fleshing out this expanded sociological imagination helps us to activate the full potential of understanding and explanation the concept of culture possesses, and thus, to decisively turn culture on.


The Paradoxes of Solidarity: Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity in Mao’s China

GAO Rui

2015, 35(3):  67-94. 

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The millions of Chinese people who had the misfortune of living through the War of Resistance Against Japan (hereafter “the War”) experienced nearly unbearable trauma and pain. Such vivid and massively shared suffering and injustice, however, remained ultimately private and individual. For many years after the building of the People’s Republic of China, this suffering seldom found its way into the public sphere of expression.
A chief goal of this paper is to delve into this curious phenomenon—namely, the “absence” of a collective trauma of the War despite the human suffering—and seek to explain it from a cultural sociological point of view. To this end, I would draw on the theory of cultural trauma and explore the relationship between various cultural structures in the process of trauma formation. The absence of the trauma of the War should not be understood merely as a consequence of political necessity, but should be contextualized and comprehended within the web of meanings woven by powerful cultural structures that predominated in the public sphere at the time.
My tasks in this chapter are twofold. First, I trace in Mao’s era the successful construction of a class trauma that sought to form a new collectivity. Secondly, I examine how the experience of the War fits, or, rather, “unfits” with this grand narrative of “class trauma”. Tracing representation of the War in the public sphere around the time, I argue that the emergence of the War as a collective trauma was effectively “inhibited” by the trauma of class struggle.

The Hierarchy of Profit Division and Grassroots Governance Involution: The Logic of Rural Governance under the Background of the Resource Input

CHEN Feng

2015, 35(3):  95-120. 

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Since the launch of the reform of taxes and fees in 2002, the central government has issued a series of favorable policies for farmers and took a lot of resources to the countryside. Industry started to support agriculture. It brings new opportunity for rural development and rural governance, which gains support of the broad masses of farmers. In a way, it also helps consolidate the ruling foundation of Chinese Communist Party, and enhance the legitimacy of the state power. However, the political efficiency of the reform of the agricultural taxes and fees has quickly reduced, and the resource input to the countryside did not achieve the desired effect. On the one hand, grassroots organizations cannot undertake topdown inputted resources effectively，and connect scattered farmers. On the other hand, the noncooperation between officials and the farmers often ended up with predicament of governance of the “nail house” in the construction of the project. Under this background, grassroots organizations mainly present two basic forms of governance. Some village cadres were afraid of “accident” and did things passively so much so that some even avoided the input of resources for the village construction. Other villages mainly were ruled by the rich and the grey black forces. They actively fight for resources and projects, and take a variety of means to solve the “nail households”, and gain some benefits from the project or political capital for the development of their individual economy. Both governance forms have eroded the national resources and local public resources, and the authority and legitimacy of grassroots organizations further decline. On the resources input chain, a profit division hierarchy has been formed among people involved in power rentseeking, local social forces of the rich and the grey black forces, opportunistic and interestoriented farmers and so on. Ordinary people should have been the biggest beneficiaries of the input resources, but the hierarchal profit division impairs the interests of the broad masses of farmers. But they are reluctant to protest as the resources are mainly input from the above, not extracted from them. Grassroots governance is suffering from involution. Fundamentally, it is resulted from the tension between the oppressive system and effective governance, and it happens during the transformation of the rural societies from under integrity governance to under technology governance. However, the counterbalance relations of interests and responsibility among the state, grassroots organizations and farmers produce fracture, and it is difficult for the input resources to produce maximum effectiveness and improve the condition of the rural governance. On the contrary, the input resources help nourish a profitsharing group and the hierarchal profit division of the grassroots society has put rural governance into a new dilemma.


Empirical Explanation of Gender Performance Theory and Reflection upon Feminism Methodology: Basing on Interviews of Upscale Elites

GAO Xiaonan

2015, 35(3):  121-140. 

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Being a representative of postmodern gender theorist, Judith Butler has greatly challenged the traditional gender theories through her famous gender performance theory since two decades ago. This theory, however, has been seldom applied empirically. This current study represents an intention to achieve this by interviewing upscale elites who enjoy special social advantage and show unique sincerity and flexibility when their narration is related to gender. This caters well to the theoretical core of gender performance theory. A contrast between gender performance theory and feminism methodology rises during the interview and the analysis. This provides an opportunity to reflect upon the latter’s potential “victim assumption” and “overattribution to gender” standpoints, their subject selection criteria, research angles and research intention which are encountering a crisis of legitimacy. Finally, an intention to bridge the two may offer some actual significance in gender research.


DifferentialExposure，DifferentialOccupation，and Differential Experience：An Empirical Analysis on Differences in Chinese UrbanRural Residents’ Environmental Concern

FAN Yechao，HONG Dayong

2015, 35(3):  141-167. 

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 Using Data from 2010 China General Social Survey, this paper presents a comparative analysis on the urbanrural differences in environmental concern in mainland China. Firstly, it could be concluded from the literature review that the Residence Hypothesisthat urban residents are more environmentally concerned than the ruralhad once been extensively supported in the western countries, and there are mainly three theoretical explanations for this hypothesis: differentialexposure theory, differentialoccupation theory, and differentialexperience theory. Secondly, the measurement model for Chinese residents’ environmental concern consists of five facetsNew Ecological Paradigm (NEP), the degree of attention paid to environmental issues, the assessment of environmental hazards, the willingness to pay for environmental protection, and daily environmental behaviors and 21 indicators in total; the results of secondorder confirmatory factor analysis indicate that both urban and rural residents share a coherent belief system in perceiving environmental issues. Thirdly,  the results of ANOVA analysis indicate that there are indeed significant differences in the level of urbanrural residents’ environmental concern, with urban residents show more environmental concern in many aspects. Fourthly，the results of Structural Equation Modeling indicate that only differentialexposure theory can explain a part of urbanrural differences while the other two are not supported by data; besides, environmental knowledge and media use display significant mediating effects on the formation of the gap between the urban and the rural residents.Last but not the least, it is inappropriate or limited to apply the theories rooted in western societies to explain the urbanrural differences in mainland China; furthermore, judging from both the existing studies and the variation trend in the long term, the urbanrural differences in environmental concern are definitely being convergent and will finally go to the isomorphism.


The Effects of Social Networks on Life Satisfaction：A TwoWave Longitudinal Study of Beijing，Shanghai, and Guangdong

MA Dan

2015, 35(3):  168-192. 

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Social network is of special significance in Chinese society and the importance of social network in the functioning of individuals has long been noted. This study empirically examines the relationships between various aspects of social network and individual life satisfaction， using data from Chinese family panel studies in Beijing， Shanghai and Guangdong province in 2008 and 2009. The study applies hierarchical linear model and analysis of covariance models.
The size and composition of Chinese New Year Greeting network and the frequency of participation in social networks are examined in this paper. An inverted Ushaped relationship is found between network size and life satisfaction in the random effect regression model, indicating that social network size first increases and then decreases life satisfaction. The results also show that proportion of friends of network, frequency of neighborhood interaction, and frequency of informal social network participation are positively associated with life satisfaction.
Analysis of covariance model is used to test the causal relationships with panel data. The result shows that the increases in Chinese New Year Greeting network size, proportion of friends in the network, and frequency of informal social network participation improve individual life satisfaction. But no evidence proves that an increase in neighborhood interaction can improve the level of life satisfaction.


Expanding Chinese Higher Education： Quality and Social Stratification

YE Xiaoyang，DING Yanqing

2015, 35(3):  193-220. 

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In this paper, we analyze student stratification in higher education using a random survey of senior students from 46 universities in Beijing in 2011. We examine the impact of higher education expansion since 1999 on college access and social mobility in the labor market. We find the expansion has enhanced the social strata replication rather than reproduction.
We first estimate the impact on college access using Binary Logit Model and Multinomial Logit Model. Chinese higher education is rather exclusive than inclusive during the expansion which means students from higher social class families have larger possibilities to access to elite universities，other things being equal. The effect of family social stratification background on students’ educational stratification is larger during secondary school period.We don’t find evidence that family background influences choice of major.
We then examine how college quality can affect students’ labor market choice and performance using Multinomial Logit Model, Ordinal Logit Model and Tobit Model. Controlling family background, higher education quality is positively correlated with the higher probability that students choose a marketoriented job and with higher starting salaries. However, if the expansion diminishes higher education quality as suggested by many qualitative studies, it weakens the role of higher education as a way of upward social mobility.
We learn from this study that it is not an optimal policy for the government to develop China higher education solely by expanding its scale without increasing its quality. More attention should be paid to guarantee the quality during any education policy changes, and to ensure educational equality in K12 education as well.


Connection Link or Attachment Tool: Literature Review on the Research of China’s Business Associations During the Transition Period

ZHANG Hua

2015, 35(3):  221-240. 

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Civil Society theory and Corporatism theory are two mainstream perspectives of studying contemporary Chinese industry associations. These theories represent two different approaches of the industry associations after China’s economic reform. Based on the perspective of statesocial relations, civil society theory emphasizes the influence of market development, while the corporatism is concerned with the special relationship between association, state and market. In addition to the above two perspectives, Clientelism theory suggests that we should focus on the operation of the real power, rather than statesocial relations. This viewpoint argues that due to the imperfect market and government intervention, associations are still embedded within the governmental institutions. Clientelism theory provides individual approach and important explanatory variables in the study of business association in contemporary China. It also provides different point of view to reveal the relationship between different elements of the development of associationsmarket development, state intervention and enterprises’ collective actions. The study of industry association is a central issue of Chinese political economy. The government capacity and influence of economy shape the activities of the business enterprises, which in turn shape the formation and development process of society, therefore calls attention to the increasing need for the study of industry associations.