E-mail address:    sbjb@cass.org.cn or sbjb2002@sina.com

Website:               http://www.cass.net.cn/chinese/s09_shx/english/sr/index.htm 

Workers' Action Choices in the process of Institutional Transformation of State-owned

Enterprises: An empirical research of un-collective action                                   Liu, Aiyu

Abstract：This thesis attempts to do an empirical research of workers’ responses to the status deprivation in the process of State-owned Enterprises’ institutional transformations, especially the possibility of workers’ collective action, and analyzes the relationship between workers’ action choices with institutional environment, material environment, resource and goal in temporal under the hypothesis of workers as context, bounded rationality agents. Formal institution and informal institution are the main institutional factors that shaping the workers’ action choices as well as the logic of action choices, the logic of conform to institution and the logic of maintain subsistence.. Main conclusions of the research are: there is no open and interests organized collective action under the condition of status deprivation in the process of institution transformation, i.e. un-collective action. Collective inaction is not the main politics of state-owned enterprises. Main response of action is obedience, exit, and individual voice.

The Workshop Game and the Laid-off list making: A case study of two state-owned enterprises in north-east China                                                                             Li,Erjin

Abstract: There are two ideal types of enterprise downsizing，one is based on planning economy, where workers are allocated by the state, the other is based on market economy, where workers get or lose their jobs according to the labor contracts. The laid-off list in the factories in China in the second half of 1990’s is different from both the labor allocation before the reform and the labor market in western country. The complexity of the laid-off list making reflects the complexity of the factory regimes. The author analyzes different workshop regimes by using the concept of “workshop game”, and points out the differences in dynamic, criterion, and operation in the process of the laid-off list making in different kind of factories in transitional China.

The Core Status and Error of Approach of the Rational Choices in the New Economic Sociology

Liu,Shaojie

Abstract: The attitude toward rational choice in sociology has changed from refusal, introduction to acknowledgement. The study and research on rational choice always is the core of New Economic Sociology developed since the 70^’s in 20^th century. Only by taking rational choice research, rather than social network research, as a starting point, could people understand and hold the theoretical substance of New Economic Sociology. Although New Economic Sociology has extended the field of theoretical view on rational choice, with many non-economic factor’s entry into the view of rational choice which does not satisfy computation, the principle of computation and the principle of utility maximum on instrumental reason or object reason have nothing changed since then, which directly lead to the error of research methods through which economic sociology explores rational choice.

Class Habitus and Taste: Bourdieu's theory of social class                                      Liu, Xin

Abstract：This paper reviews Bourdieu’s theory of social class. It is organized into three main sections. In part one, as the background to understand his class theory, Bourdieu’s general framework of social theory, methodology, and key terms are briefly introduced. Part two reviews Bourdieu’s theoretical insights on class concept, capital and class classification, class habitus and taste, class trajectory and related topics. In part three, the author comments on Bourdieu’s important contributions to class theory and its limitations, highlights the heuristic implication of his class theory and the possibility to apply it to Chinese society to develop some empirical research questions.

The Mis-transmission: A social psychological analysis of the prevalence of rumors and

gossip about SARS                                                                                        Zhou, Xiaohong

Abstract: This article analyzes social causes of prevalence of the rumor and gossip about SARS in Beijing, Guangzhou and other districts of China in early 2003 when SARS was spreading. Methods like questionnaires, interviews and analysis of documents are used in this article. Rumors and gossip are information spread in society which has no adequate proofs and are the results of three components working together which are aberration of people’s mind, recreation of disseminator and use of folk culture and tradition.

Toward a World Politics without World Government: The background and meaning of

Jurgen Habermas' "Deliberative Politics"                                                           Cao, Weidong

Abstract: “Deliberative Politics”, the key word of the political theory of Jürgen Habermas, maintains that we should transcend the dilemma of Liberalism and republicanism, so that we could reconstruct a new conception of democracy. This article will analyse the historical background and the actuality of “Deliberative Politics” according to the conception of national state and in the light of the history about the western political practice and political theory.

Institutional Mechanisms in Social Welfare: Analysis of motivation, risk, and after-effects

Xu, Yanhui & Lin, Qun

Abstract：In this paper, the author combines the psychological findings with the social welfare research. It is studied by some psychologists that people are likely to be risk averse over gains, while they are often risk-loving over losses. Thus “loss aversion” and “status quo bias” are general psychological phenomenon of human beings. The author uses these psychological terms to analyze how the welfare states operate and what is the motivation of their development. Using the terms of information economics, such as technical risk and moral risk, the author also discusses the risks involved in the process of designing and operating of the welfare institutions. Through the analysis in the paper, the consequences of the operation of the welfare states will be understood more clearly.

The Floating Population of the "Cenozoic Era," the Concept Hard to Define: The case of

Qingxuan Village, Hunan Province                                                         Zhao, Fang

Abstract: This text uses the results of my own research about Qingxuan village’s floating population who migrate to big cities and are engaged in the industry. Through the statistic analysis of the questionnaires and the in-depth interview of them, I can not find any statistic data, such as the fundamental index, occupational career, life idea or social contact etc., to support the concept “Cenozoic era floating population” that put forward by Wang Chunguang and Luo Xia, so I think that this concept is not scientific.

Stratification among Peasants and the System of Equally Apportioned Rural Taxes and

Fees in the Reform Process                                                                         Zhou, Pigai

Abstract: The unreasonable shares of tax and fee among different stratifications of peasants have become main problem of tax and fee system in contemporary China’s countryside. These problems stem from the contradiction between the peasants’ stratification and the equally apportioned system of rural tax and fee. The equally apportioned system of rural tax and fee, which has taxed every peasant with equal amount regardless of peasants’ income and wealth situation, especially results in the facts that the agricultural laborers in the central and western countryside are taxed more than they can bear.

Study of the Lowest Level of Social Security Among Urban Citizens in China              Hong, Dayong

Abstract: On the basis of generalizing concrete practices in establishing an urban lowest living security standard in Chinese cities by applying a typological method, this thesis compares different standards exercised in different areas and in different times, and via introducing actual authoritative poverty lines from a variety of areas as conference, points out that the working urban lowest living security standard (publicized) is inadequately lower so as not to meet the needs of securing urbanites’ basic living. Besides, the author also indicates that in the course of implementation, a majority of areas have adopted a flexible standard, and most areas could grant security allowance to the recipients timely and fully. A few areas, however, realizes a multi-level flexible standard in accordance with actual situation of the family. In the end, the author generalizes 6 problems to be tackled by the existing urban lowest living security standard and presents a number of suggestions for policy-making.