Dualism of Integrated Order: A case on property dispute

…………………………………………………………………………………………… Zhang Jing

Abstract: The thesis tries to state the orientation of differentiating between public investment and personal investment which emerges in people’s idea of property. As the principles of differentiation have not been made clear nor approved by all parties unanimously, “double recognition” which admit the legalized source of both personal investment and public service and administration as property identification, is adopted to solve the dispute. The special path adopted by “double recognition” is to deal with “claim on right of law” and “distribution of rights” separately according to different or even controversy principles. The author calls it “dual principles of integrated order”. As for social integration, “claim on right of law” which legalizes the identity and rights recognized by some institutions is symbolic and obligatory; “distribution of interests” which narrows the difference between “claim on right of law” and civic justice (vicissitude). For social integration, the latter is more substantially important because it serves ultimately for the order of agreements reached by all parties.

Legal Transplants and the Conflicts of Legitimacy: Chinese grassroots judicial practice in the context of modernity

……………………………………………………………………………………………… Liu Sida

Abstract: This is a case study of a basic-level court in a small county in China's Hebei Province. Using data on the changes in the formal organizational structure, changes in the composition of personnel, changes in the case docket, and changes in case dispositions in this court between 1978 and 2000, the author demonstrates that global legal institutions have survived in China’s judicial practice by adapting to the indigenous social and political demands and get localized. The day-to-day grassroots judicial work of Chinese judges is only loosely coupled with their formal roles, and the judicial decision-making process is contingent upon historical origin of the judiciary, administrative influence, and the legal consciousness of local communities. The underlying reason for this process of localization is the complexity of legitimacy at the local level. Global prescription, economic pressure, political influence, and local social order all require certain types of legitimacy from the legal institutions. As a result, beyond the symbolic meaning of global convergence, the actual meanings of the legal institutions in the judicial practice are socially constructed to reconcile the conflicts between these global and local sources of legitimacy..

Becoming Stratified：Residential Spaces，Lifestyles，Social Networks and Class Identity:  An empirical study of social stratums in urban China

……………………………………………………………………………  Liu Jingming  Li Lulu

Abstract: This paper focus on the correspondence relations between objective stratification and its outcomes, which is defined by authors in four dimensions as following – residential pattern, social communication, life style and class consciousness. How to understanding the consequence of social stratification is a very important theme, and authors disclosed a complicated prospect for the relationship between the individual’s objective position and its four outcome dimension via applying Latent Class Analysis techniques. We find that stratified trends are clear when dimensions of residential pattern, social communication and social identity are corresponded with class positions, especially with the top and bottom classes. But it is not true for the dimension of lifestyle. 2003’s General Social Survey data is used for this analysis.

Social Stratification, Home Ownership, and Quality of Living: Evidence from China's Fifth Census

……………………………………………………………………………Bian Yanjie  Liu Yongli

Abstract: The research of China's changing social stratification systemhas focused almost entirely on the analysis of income & occupational mobility.  This paper instead draws attention to housing distribution, an aspect of social stratification that has increasing importance to life chances under a market-driven system.  The urban portion of China's 2000 Population & Housing Census is analyzed to examine variation by occupation in (1) home ownership, (2) home space, & (3) home quality.  As of 2000, 72% of the urban households are private home owners, which reveal a 48% jump from the 24% in 1990.  Households whose heads hold an elite occupation are significantly more likely to be in access to private homes than other households, & they show advantages of purchasing housing units previously rented, economically affordable homes, &, especially, newly constructed homes with a competitive market price.  On the other h&, home space & quality also have improved tremendously since the late early 1990s.  Households headed by managerial & professional elites are in access to large home space & better quality than are households headed by non-elites.  These findings are in support of a view of power persistence, & informative about the fact that societal stability & continuity in social stratification are behind a successful economic reform program.

The Relevance of Culture to Modernity: Revisiting Max Weber’s theoretical legacy

……………………………………………………………………………………………  Xia Guang

Abstract: This essay examines the limitations of Weber’s conception of modernity from the perspective of how culture relates to modernity. It argues that Weber is simplistic in defining formal rationality as the general feature of modern culture. This simplistic perception makes it impossible for Weber or Weberians to explain the possible affinity between non-Western traditions (the Confucian tradition in this case) and modernity, as well as the possibility for Western modernity to transcend formal rationality in its cultural sphere. This essay further argues that the reason for Weber’s simplicity lies in his rigid classification of formal vs. substantive rationality in his typology of social actions. Under the framework of his typology, he is unable to perceive the continuous influences of traditional cultures (Western and non-Western) on the progress of modernity in the West and elsewhere, as well as the coexistence of formal and substantive rationality in the context of modernity.

Injured Migrant Workers: A de-powered social group

…………………………………………………………………………………   Zheng Guanghuai

Abstract：At present, various kinds of legal protections and policy systems for migrant workers are more and more perfect, but migrant workers, especially injured migrant workers are still miserable. By focusing on the process of safeguarding the rights of injured migrant workers this paper has discovered that there is another process that is completely opposite to the empowerment in practice. There is a process of de-powerment. De-powerment refers to the fact that although the empowered group claimed on their rights nominally, they get caught into a completely opposite process of legalized deprivation in the practical process of struggling for their own rights and interests. The concept of legalized deprivation takes on the forms of institutional interlink in the operation of institutional practice. The present research has analyzed four types of institutional interlinks, which are found in the operating process, including delegitimation, increase of the cost of safeguarding rights, the alternative usage of institutions and the weakening of social support.

“Peasant-labor”: System and identity

……………………………………………………………………………………… Chen Yingfang

Abstract: Beginning with the concept of urban-citizenship, this research explored the systematic background and the mechanism of identity construction which rural-urban migrants became non-urban-citizens. The author proposed that the government’s need for the existing household registration system served as a context in which the existing household registration and peasant-labor system had been maintained for decades. However, the central government’s strategy of transferring power and responsibility to a lower level and the local governments’ orientations of protecting their own interests did not contribute any practical solution for problems relevant to peasant-labor’s rights and interests. Moreover, the construction and the high endorsement of peasant-labor identity, which was regarded as the third identity in the society of China, not only formed the legitimate foundation of the existing peasant-labor system, but also influenced the right consciousness of rural-urban migrants and their actions of interest articulation.

Categorical Sources of Income Inequality: The case of urban China

…………………………………………………………………………… Wang Tianfu  Wang Feng

Abstract: We examine in this paper the roles of institutional sources in the spectacular rise of income inequality in urban China during the reform era.  Categories created under the state socialism show new life in an emerging market economy and continue to form the institutional sources of rising economic inequality.  In addition to rewarding individuals differently according to their attributes, income distribution in urban China shows a clear pattern of alignment along boundaries such as locality, industrial sector, ownership type, and work organizations.  Relying on mechanisms such as exclusion and opportunity hoarding, and by forming local corporatism and work organization ownership, members in different categories retain a degree of equality while allowing inequality between categories rise sharply.

Sociological Analysis of Nostalgia as A Cultural Event

……………………………………………………………………………………… Zhao Jing Rong

Abstract：  Nostalgia has been a popular spectacle of culture in the modern society.   Emerging specially in some social circumstances and reflecting the modern people’s deep demands, nostalgia is a psychological defense mechanism, which contends with over- reasoning of modern society by aesthetics, in order to remedy the turbulent and unsafe qualities of modern life and pursue the soul’s home. Nostalgia is often of the popular, formal and commercial character in modern times.

RESPONSE

Several Issues in Studies on Village Politics: Response to Yin Xing’s criticism and farther thinking

……………………………………………………………………………………   Tong Zhihui

BOOK REVIEW

Probing into Latent Rules in Gender Relation and Gender Studies

Reading Jing Yihong, Decline of Father Right: gender studies in the course of modernization in

Southern Jiangsu country in China                                     

………………………………………………………………………………………   Wu Xiaoying

True or False Martin?

Reading Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre: Imposture and Identity in a Sixteenth-century Village

………………………………………………………………………………………… Lv Wenjiang