Chinese-Style Modernization and Theoretical Advancement of the Sociology of Guanxi
The thesis of Chinese-style modernization reflects the practice of China's socialist modernization.Adhering to national subjectivity,cultural diversity,and path dependence,it has enriched the theory of world modernization and raised the research tasks of the times and future orientation for breakthroughs of sociological theory.The modernization theory of western sociology focuses on the transformation of social behavior from traditional to modern patterns.At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,European classical sociologists put forward three major propositions,namely,the transformation of social order,the transformation of social constraints,and the transformation of social action.In the first half of the 20th century,American sociologist Talcott Parsons put forward five pairs of pattern variables that characterize the fundamental differences between traditional and modern social behaviors,while contemporary scholars have developed multiple theoretical perspectives to rethink modernization as a process in the world system theory,the cultural change theory,the path dependence theory,and the end of history theory.Limited by a position of Eurocentrism and a dualist philosophical view,these theories ignore the modernization experience of many countries in the world,overlook the continuity between tradition and modernity,and underestimate the relational logics of social behavior.The sociology of guanxi is a new research field that inherits and expands the Chinese sociological tradition of studying the relational logics and patterns of social behavior widely observed in Chinese society.Its theoretical goal is to establish a system of theoretical knowledge about social relationality characterized by ethical standards,differentiated associations,and social ties of high familiarity,intimacy,and trustworthiness.Its methodological goal is to transform the practices and results of Chinese empirical research into technologies of measurement,research design,data collection,and analytic techniques that can be applied to the study of social relations and social behaviors in all countries around the world.Over the past decade,the sociology of guanxi has made theoretical breakthroughs in(1)the research of social ties,moving from a tie-strength theory to the theory of content variability of social ties;(2)the research relational mechanisms,moving from the theory of resource differences to the theory of multiple mechanisms;(3)the research of relational culture,moving from the theory of role fluctuation to the theory of relational habitus;and(4)the research of network structure,moving from the theory of network composition to the stability hypothesis about core network circles.The five perspectives of Chinese-style modernization have logically implied new theoretical propositions that will orient the sociology of guanxi to its new directions in empirical research in the years to come.First,the perspective of China's huge population size implies the propositions of gradual change of social relational mode across generations.Second,the perspective of common prosperity for all people implies the propositions of promoting and inhibiting relational mechanisms of social behavior.Third,the perspective of coordination between material civilization and spiritual civilization implies the proposition about the change in guanxi ties and the proposition about the merging guanxi habitus.Fourth,the perspective of harmonious coexistence of humans and nature implies the proposition about the roles of social relations in strengthening people's awareness and behavior of environmental protection.And finally,the perspective of peaceful development implies the proposition of comparative advantages of China's guanxi networks in cross-cultural relations around the world.These theoretical propositions have raised new topics and provided a theoretical basis for future empirical research,are intended to make the sociology of guanxi keep pace with the times and close to the dynamics of Chinese-style modernization,and in doing so let this new research field better serve the goal of developing China into a modern country in strongest terms.
Chinese-style modernizationsociological theorysociology of guanxisocial capital
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
