Table of Content

20 September 2015, Volume 35 Issue 5

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Project System and Its Impact on Relationship between Different Levels of Government

CHEN Jiajian ZHANG Qiongwen HU Yu

2015, 35(5):  1-24. 

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 In recent years， project initiatives became an important administrative vehicle of the Chinese state governance.Existing literature speculate without documented empirical data that the system has increased the control of higher level authorities over their subordinates，affecting the lower level governments’ ability for overall coordination.To verify such claims this study examines a central government sponsored project of microlending program for women in Sichuan province. The finding indicates that although the project system provides opportunities for more higher level government control，it also allows lower level governments more bargaining power as counter weight. Unlike the institutionalized administrative contract system，in which rights and responsibilities are fixed，the project system permits negotiation on a projecttoproject base，allowing lower level governments to extract terms beneficial to local interests. Therefore，it is not just a topdown one way control. It is a twoway fluid relationship that is constantly in negotiation， clarification and formalization. In our view，the project system has forced local governments to protect local interest by focusing on clarification of rules and regulations，and formalization of rights and responsibilities. This began to have a farreaching effect on local governance，as well as the relationship between different levels of governments， and between state and society.


 “Bureaucratized” Project System： An Organizational Study of Chinese Central Government Sponsored Projects

SHI Puyuan

2015, 35(5):  25-59. 

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In recent years， the proliferation of central governmental projects has been taking place within the government bureaucracy. In order for us to understand this phenomenon， we need to examine both the Chinese bureaucracy and the project operation system. This article proposes three key features of the project operation system. They are features of temporarily， goaloriented， and flexible plus innovative. A comparison of these features with the three basic elements of bureaucracy shows that underneath the superficial fusion of the two system there are unavoidable tensions. Given the fact that the Chinese bureaucracy lacks of structural constraints and public participation in its decision making process， projects seldom meet the target of appropriate supplydemand equation. Tensions are particularly manifested in two areas: (1) projects are interdepartmental and temporary in nature while bureaucracy is always rigid and insulate； (2) projects are goalorientated and flexible while bureaucracy is ruleoriented and hierarchical. At most time， central governmental projects have to operate under the government bureaucracy， thus we call the system “Bureaucratized” Project System. Bureaucracy is strengthened rather than weakened by the current project system. In our case study， we find that the bureaucracy resists the project integration reform because its power is being threatened even it is apparently beneficial for project operations. We are not optimistic about the future of the project integration reform as the task is now laid upon the overloaded and wronglymotivated local governments while the state bureaucracy remains all powerful.


International Visibility of Chinese Cities in the Last Three Centuries: A BigData Based Description and Regression Analysis

CHEN Yunsong WU Qingxi ZHANG Yi

2015, 35(5):  60-77. 

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This study utilizes Google Books search engine generated big data to examine the development of international visibility of Chinese cities in the last three hundred years. The visibility is measured by the frequency of a city name appeared in millions of English language books. We find that among the 294 cities in our study, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Macau, Tianjin, Taipei, Chongqing, and Lhasa come up as the top ten ones with the highest international visibility. Five factors appear to affect the international profiles of Chinese cities: (1) the city’s socioeconomic importance in international relations; (2) the city’s association with historical events; (3) the city’s visibility has its life cycle; (4) the city’s geographical affiliation with other cities; (5) international visibility cannot be definitively related to the city’s history, population size and economic elements. We place the data of international visibility and media exposure under the Granger time series regression test and found that media coverage is a significant cause on the international visibility of mainland cities but not Hong Kong and Macau. The finding implies that media coverage is the major entry point for mainland cities to gain international recognition.  


Typological Analysis of Online Extreme EmotionBased Groups and Its SocioPolitical Implications：An Empirical Examination of the Chinese Internet Social Mentality Survey (2014)

GUI Yong LI Xiumei ZHENG Wen HUANG Ronggui

2015, 35(5):  78-100. 

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This paper takes a social media user centered approach to develop a topology of social groups by examining their expressions of extreme emotions in the social media space，and further scrutinizes the background characteristics，political attitudes and online actions of each group.Using the Chinese Internet Social Mentality Survey (2014)，our latent class analyses of online expression of extreme emotions reveal five groups of Weibo users，including the emotionally nonextremists，the politically apathetic，the extreme patriotic，the political cynics，and the populists. In terms of political positions，the populists can be seen as grassroots leftists；the patriotic are proregime leftists；the politically apathetic are moderate rightists，whilst the cynics are radical rightists.In terms of political attitudes，the cynics hold the most negative attitude towards the regime，and the populists have the lowest levels of political trust.On the contrary，the patriotic have the most positive attitude towards the regime and the highest levels of political trust. In terms of online actions，the populists are the most likely to engage in cyber violence and to participate in online protests，followed by the cynics and the patriotic.Overall，the politically apathetic have negative political attitudes，but the likelihood of action is slim.The patriotic are attitudinally the most positive，and willing to engage in radical online actions.Both the cynics and the populists have strong negative political attitudes，and are likely to engage in online actions， which make these two groups worth of further attention. Based on these findings，this paper contends that the study of online expression of extreme emotions is an import window through which we can better understand the Chinese network society.
 

Does Virtual Community Facilitate Online Community Engagement? A Case Study of Online Social Network

CHEN Huashan

2015, 35(5):  101-121. 

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There have been some intense debates over the issue of internet technology and civic engagement. Concerns about whether internet reduces facetoface interaction and thus weakens community cohesion，or whether it creates a new way of communication and community participation，or perhaps it is simply a means of fulfillment，have generated a wide range of opinions.However，few studies have dealt with the role of virtual community in social engagement and how such participation is mobilized through social networks within the virtual world. Based on a large quantity of data collected from one online Property Owners’ Forum，this paper for the first time attempts to apply the perspective of social network analysis to examine the issue. The methodology adopted here is the ERGM model，suitable for large scale data analysis.
This study views the discussion forum as a complex network of relationships. The forum discussion boards are categorized into three groups of community issues，leisure and hobby，and general topics.The study looks into whether there are differences among the members of these three groups in participation levels because of their preference of interests. The study results show that the participants in leisure and hobby group have the lowest opening level of online community engagement. The social networks formed through online discussions have positive effect on community participation. The leisure and hobby group also shows stronger intra group bonds andcohesion than the general topics group，which makes it easier tomobilize members to engage in community issues.By comparison，the loosely connected members of the general topics group are less likely to be mobilized to involve in community issues，a characteristic of what Putman called “passive consumption”. This study shows that geospatial similarity also has effects on crosscommunity participation.


Family Farming and Rural Society under the Shadow of Urbanization：A Case Study of Agricultural Business Management in Chifeng，Inner Mongolia

HAN Qimin

2015, 35(5):  122-141. 

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Under the socalled “deinvolution” with the young leaving， and the elderly and women left behind in the countryside，how can Chinese rural sector make its structural transition and achieve a large scale agricultural production service? This is the issue to be discussed in this paper. The conventional understanding of large scale production is about land concentration and scale management through Ag business，or family farms，or agricultural cooperatives. In our view，given the reality of the unfavorable Chinese land and people ratio，any attempt to eliminate householdbased small scale farming is bound to fail. The study suggests that our thinking should be switched from “Scale Management” to “Scale Service”. Today’s agricultural production is no longer a “Pole like Straight Way” model. Different stages and processes of production have their own uniqueness and functions. With the advancement of Ag technology and the marketization of production factors， agricultural service has to catch up in scale. However， this does not have to be on the premise of land concentration and elimination of household farming. On the contrary，it can be done through local social networks. Local social networks can significantly reduce organizational costs of large scale service without changing the current householdbased small farming community structure.It will bring about a new system of “Agricultural Business Management” that can improve production efficiency while at the same time protect small farmers’ livelihood. Such a model is a combination of tradition and market. It should play an important role in the rural reconstruction and urbanization in the central and western regions of China.


 Chinese Netizens’ Political Ideology and Their Sources：An Empirical Analysis

MA Deyong WANG Lina

2015, 35(5):  142-167. 

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 The article offers an empirical analysis of the characteristics and sources of the ideological positions of Chinese netizens based on an online questionnaire survey of over 4000 Internet users. Firstly, we set up a criterion for classifying netizens’ political ideology into “left” and “right”. Then, we analyze leftist and rightist netizens’ psychological traits such as authoritarian personality and their attitudes towards patriotism, nationalism, foreign policy, extant socialpolitical order, and traditional and postmodern values. Our analysis finds that, leftwing and rightwing netizens in China are opposite to their namesakes in Western countries in basic political psychological traits. Specifically, Chinese “leftists” are similar to conservatives in Western countries. They possess more authoritarian personality traits and are more inclined to defend the extant social order and traditional values than the rightists. Furthermore, they are more hawkish and xenophobic on foreign affairs issues. The Chinese “rightists”, by contrast, are similar to liberals in Western countries. They are more concerned about social justice and setting limits to political power, and support postmodern values. We also analyze the sources of Chinese netizens’ political ideology through two theoretical approaches: information sources and individual’s personality. We find that netizens’ political ideology is significantly affected by both media exposure as an external factor and authoritarian personality as an internal factor, but the influence of the latter is more powerful. Based on our findings, we argue that while both media exposure and authoritarian personality have impacts on an individual’s political ideology, authoritarian personality is the more fundamental factor than information in influencing the individual’s ideological position in the new media age when information sources are increasingly diversified. Therefore, policies and strategies that try to influence the public’s ideological placement by controlling the ideological orientations of the media can only have limited effect.
 

From Online to Offline: The Formation of Collective Action and Its Contributing Factors: A Case Study of Food Waste Treatment Facility Location Protest

BU Yumei

2015, 35(5):  168-195. 

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This study examines the process from online mobilization to offline action in a case study of community collective protest against construction of a food waste treatment facility in the neighborhood.  The method of virtual ethnography is employed to show the formation of internetinitiated collective action and its contributing factors. The study finds that online shared views and identity do not necessarily have definitive influence on the transition from online discussion to offline action. In fact, whether such a transition can be realized is depended on the characteristics of the action and the stage of the movement. For initial and insubstantial offline action, online mobilization seems to be effective. However, to sustain the movement, it requires further mobilization and organization building. The study concludes that all three factors of online mobilization, characteristics of action and stage of movement play a role in the transition from online talks to offline actions. Characteristics of action and stage of movement are interrelated, both aiming to accomplish goals as one is to act and the other is to react to the risks posed by political control. To keep the movement alive is always a challenge for online mobilization. Political risks influence decisions on strategies and tactics of online mobilization, and shape the behavior of Netizens, often being described as a special type of “slacktivism.” In conclusion, Chinese political culture and environment, people’s adaptation to it, and their riskaversion nature help create the unique type of Chinese online activism that, in turn, determines the effectiveness and outcomes of online mobilization and offline collective action. 


From Occupation Development to Family Integrity: Study on Migrants’ Desire of Urban Hukou by An Analysis Perspective of Urbanization Stability

WEI Wanqing

2015, 35(5):  196-217. 

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Previous studies indicate that occupation development and family integrity effects of migrants’ quality of urbanization. However, there is little empirical research on occupation development and family integrity, how to affect migrants’ desire of urban hukou? This paper, using a survey data of Rural Migrant Workers in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, we analysis the migrants’ desire of urban hukou base on perspective of Urbanization Stability. There are three main findings. Firstly, career development factors of migrant workers have a significant impact on their desire of urban hukou. The better employment opportunities in city, the work is more stable, and occupation planning more stable, the stronger the willingness of get urban hukou. Secondly，the integrity of the family factors have a significant impact on their desire of urban hukou, such as couples work or live in same city, children education in the parents working city, can significantly improved migrants the willingness of get urban hukou. And compared with the group of migrant workers who live in the dormitory, the group of migrant works who rent or buy a house, have a stronger willingness of get urban hukou.Finally, we compared the regional differences between the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta of migrant workers willingness of get urban hukou. We found that, compared with the migrants in Pearl River Delta Area, the Yangtze River Delta migrants’ desire of urban hukou is higher, and the effect of family integrity factors are more significant. These results reflect the demand of migrants has grown from a single economy, occupation development needs to the family needs, the overall development needs.These results mean that, we can’t accept and treat migrant workers, social exclusion, only in the economic. We should let the workers and Civil Equality in rights of. At the same time, relative to the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta region, promote the reform of the household registration in the task of migrant workers citizenization is more urgent.


Independence and Rights： A Comparative Study of the Chinese and American Feminist Movements and Gender Equality

ZHU Bin LI Lulu

2015, 35(5):  218-240. 

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This study compares the difference of views on gender equality between America and China. Interestingly， the difference in opinions does not necessarily correspond to the difference in reality. China displays a much stronger sense of gender equality in labor division while America shows a stronger commitment to gender equality in rights. In our view， two countries have their own unique history and social conditions， which led to the two feminist movements with own different emphasis—China on economic independence and America on equal gender rights. Both the “independence” framework and the “right” framework helped shaping two diverse concepts of gender equality. With this understanding， the paper makes a further comparison on the different mobilization mechanism between the two feminist movements and its impact on gender equality. The micromobilization mechanism that worked well in influencing gender equality in America would not have the same effectiveness in China. This is because in China feminist ideology was sponsored and diffused through the state system in people’s everyday activities. Thus， the official interpretation of gender equality replaced individual initiatives. This is not the situation in America where feminist movements had the space to develop their more individualized views on gender equality.