Editor in-chief: Prof. Jing, Tiankui
Executive editor: Dr. Luo, Hongguang
E-mail address: sbjb@sociology.cass.net.cn or sbjb2002@sina.com
Website: http://www.cass.net.cn/chinese/s09_shx/english/sr/index.htm
Markets, Government, Communities and Global Governance
Alberto Martinelli
Abstract: The contents of this essay consist of three parts. The first part stresses the contradictory character of the social world in the XXI century as a single system (in terms of its information technology and market economy) and a fragmented world (in its political and cultural spheres), and identifies global integration and global governance as key problematic questions. The second part addresses these questions from a sociological perspective, updating existing theories and discussing the role of markets, government organizations and communities as institutional mechanisms of social integration and governance of the world system. Finally, in the third part, the author espouses his own notion of democratic global governance and analyses the main factors favoring or hindering peaceful integration and democratic governance at the world level.
Globalization and Inequality: Conceptualization and the explanatory model Goran Therborn
Abstract: The conceptual part of the paper specifies globalization into global processes, of the enduring weight of global history, of global flows of goods and services, of capital, of people, and of information and ideas, and, finally, of global entanglements of national and global institutions and organizations. Together with national processes this set of processes make up an explanatory model of global outcomes of inequality. Inequality is specified into three kinds, vital, existential, and resource inequality, and four basic mechanisms of inequality are identified, distanciation, exclusion, super/subordination, and exploitation. The explanatory model is then applied to long-term developments of vital and economic inequality in the world. The former, as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy, has decreased substantially in the second half of 20th century, whereas income inequality has widened. Global flows of medical knowledge seem to have played a crucial role in reducing vital inequality. The weight of global history, measured by GDP per capita in 1820 and in 1900, and national processes of political economy appear to account for most of today’s global resource inequality.
Beyond the Analysis of Strength: Rethinking the concept of tie
Li, Jihong
Abstract: The thesis reviews the application and development of the concept of tie in social network analysis. Although perspectives and methods are constantly changed, the concept of tie remains unchanged in different analysises and different contexts hitherto. The author rethinks the concept of tie, and proposes that the application of tie must be undertaken beyond the analytical dimension of strength by the demundanizational re-construction of a diachronic, asymmetrical, inter-subjective and oriented concept of tie. The reconstruction of tie attempts to bridge neither the micro-level interaction nor the macro-level social structure. It just aims to offer a possible method to explore the chaos of everyday life.
The Female Sex-Workers in the Labor Market Field in Three Cities of Northeast China Huang, Yingying & Pan, Suimin
Abstract: This paper describes the preliminary findings of a study on female sex-workers in the labor market field in Northeast China. The study focused on the female sex-workers’ occupational mobility, introducing their work experiences, comparing their different jobs as a sex-worker and others such as waitress, massagist, peddler, and exploring the reason why they entered prostitution and choose sex work as their job either positively or negatively. It utilized a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including more than one-month intensive field-work (informal in-depth interview, community-based observation) during data collection period and basic statistic analysis using SPSS10.0 after transferred the qualitive materials into data.103 female sex workers were involved in this study. The study found out half the female sex-workers that we interviewed are Xiagang female workers, and almost all of them are from urban areas, which indicates the reduction of the anonymity that necessary for the profession of sex work on condition that the females encountered economy crises. Moreover, the occupational mobility from the jobs after Xiagang to being as a sexworker is some kind of horizontal mobility instead of downwards as most of the people portrayed. The study also analyzes four kinds of “relationships” (Guanxi) which played different roles in their continual job-hunting process: no relationship (depend on themselves), relative-based relationship, friend-based relationship and official-based relationship (formal occupation agency). And friend-based relationship wined the bid ultimately.
How does Education Give Impact on People’s Economic Income: A study on the rate of educational return Li, Chunling
Abstract: Using a national survey data drawn from 73 districts and counties in 12 provinces, this article tries to accurately estimate the rate of educational return and examines the effects of institutional arrangement and sector segmentation on the relationship between education and income. The author concludes that the change from economic return to educational return reveals a transformation of distributional system from egalitarian to competitive rules.
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An Analysis of the Degree, Motivation and Social Effect of Political Participation of Villagers in Contemporary China Guo, Zhenglin
Abstract: Based on the data of 1852 questionnaires collected by author in rural Guangdong in 2002, this paper analyzes the degree and motivation of political participation of villagers and its support to village self-government. It is argued that direct, open and competitive village elections are the movement of empowerment for villagers, and then, the villager will obtain the institutional realization of citizenship written in the constitution. This political development promotes the democratic transformation from the political involvement with the characteristic of rule of men, instrumentalism and class struggle, to the institutional, rightful and autonomous public participation. Also, this paper reveals that impacts of non-economic factors to political participation are becoming strong, while the consciousness of citizenship of the villagers is awakening.. The political role of villagers participated in village elections is changing from the tame peasant to citizen.
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An Analysis of Marxism Social Modernization Thoughts Wang, Ji & Wang, Haobin
Abstract: This paper investigates the historical prerequisite of Marxism social modernization thoughts; and points out that firstly such historical prerequisite was closely related with Karl Marx’s comments on classical civil society theory and social practice at that time. Secondly, Marxism social modernization thoughts’ fundamental intentions are modernization prerequisite, impetus, essence, way, principle and tendency. Thirdly, there are three main characteristics in these thoughts. Finally, this study has profound practical meaning to socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.
the Re-established Social Network by the Peasant Workers and the Orientation of the Resource Flow in the Social Network Cao, Ziwei· Abstract: The size of the re-established social network by the peasant workers in city would influence the orientation of the resource flow in social network in some degree. The size of the re-established social network is positively related to the obtained resources. The bigger the size of the re-established is, the more resources peasant workers get from other network members. The original network, which exists in village, is the base of the re-established network in city. And the expectation, responsibility and trust are the key of the re-established network.
