Guanxilization or categorization: psychological mechanisms contributing to the formation of the Chinese concept of “us”

中国社会心理学在面对急速的社会变迁中，需要以变迁与文化的视角来选择研究 问题，而中国社会文化中群己关系的社会心理机制，即“我们”概念的形成机制及其 转换的可能与条件，正是一个体现着双重视角的基本问题。对这一问题的探讨不仅有 助于解释社会凝聚力、群体行动的逻辑，讨论国家与个人、社会与个人、类别与个人 的关系；也有助于培植社会转型时期的社会心理资源和社会支持系统，从而促进社会 合作。与以往单一机制的分析框架不同，通过对两个个案的讨论，研究提出了一个 新的分析框架，即：中国人“我们”概念是在社会情境的启动和价值取向等因素影响之 下，经由相互交织的“关系化”与“类别化”双重过程形成的。

关键词: “我们”?概念?群己关系?关系?关系化?类别化

Faced with rapid social transformation, the discipline of social psychology in China needs to choose its research topics from the perspective of both change and culture. A basic issue reflecting precisely these two perspectives is that of the formation of the social psychology mechanism of individual‐group relations, namely the formation of the concept of “us” in Chinese society and culture, as well as the possibility and conditions for the transformation of this mechanism. Exploring this issue will not only help us to understand social cohesion and the logic of group behavior and to discuss the relationship between the state and the individual, society and the individual, and the category and the individual; it will also help cultivate social psychology resources and support systems at a time of social transition, and thus promote social cooperation.. Unlike previous analytical studies that focused on a unitary mechanism, this study uses the discussion of two cases to put forward a new framework for analysis: that is, the Chinese concept of “us” comes into being through the mingling of “guanxilization” and “categorization” under the influence of social context priming, value orientation and other factors.     

Learning to smell: on the shifting modalities of experience

ABSTRACT

How can one learn to perceive? The study of an expert training shows how olfactory learning combines two operations and modalities of experience: firstly, it rests upon doubt and the questioning of perception to turn its undisputable evidence into a changing plurality. Secondly, perception is reconstructed and stabilized according to a set of chosen constraints, thanks to a perpetual control and reworking of the inadequate perceptions.

This analysis brings us to reconsider the interpretation of the notion of “attention”. Trainees focusing on their perception do not make it more salient, precise and detailed, as per the representational interpretation of perception. They question it. In so doing, they foster a surge of “shades” and make it plural and variable. Attention denotes here a process of perceptual destabilization, through doubt.

Additionally, in the cases studied, the reflexivity that enables learning shows deconstructive aspects: through doubt, the surrounding world turns from self-evident to changing and plural. This does not fit the usual constructive character of reflexivity, as in “mind-” or “self-building” processes, for instance. At the core of the learning process, the shifting modalities of perception seem to open the door to a larger variety of understandings of reflexivity and their correlative selves.     

Judicial Amendment and Lack of Thoroughness: Analysis of Provisions on Evidence in the Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law

2012年中国?刑事诉讼法修正案?对证据制度进行了修正, 较修改前的内容有进 步之处, 也存在若干不足。例如, 立法中虽然认同反对强迫自证其罪, 但却并不认同 沉默权, 而且保留了行为人的供述义务; 对“威胁”, “引诱”和“欺骗”这些非法 取供行为发出宽容的信号; 对非法搜查、扣押的取证行为缺乏坚决遏制的立法态度; 对保证证人出庭作证来说, 虽然规定了人身安全保障, 经济补偿和司法处分措施, 却 没有规定这一制度最为重要的传闻证据规则, 等等。关键词: 刑事诉讼 司法改良 证据制度 不彻底主义

China’s Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law of 2012 revises the provisions on rules of evidence. There are a number of positive changes compared to the original text, but some shortcomings still exist. For instance, although the legislation recognizes the right against compulsory self-incrimination, it does not acknowledge the right to silence and retains the obligation of the accused to confess; the amended provisions are more tolerant of the use of illegal tactics like “threats,” “enticement” and “deceit” to obtain confessions; the legislative approach does not resolutely deter unlawful search and seizure in the collection of evidence; and although there are provisions for protection of personal safety, financial compensation and judicial sanctions to ensure that witnesses appear before court to testify, there are no provisions on the most important rule in the evidence system, the hearsay rule.     

古典学的人类学相关性:还原并反思地引申一种主张

近代人类学的奠基者曾高度重视借鉴古典学的研究成果。20世纪初，学科理念发生巨变。此后数十年间，古典学者继续借鉴人类学思想，而现代新人类学中重视古典学的学者却越来越少。20世纪60年代初，克拉克洪在其所著《论人类学与古典学的关系》一书中对这一变化表示喜忧参半。他乐见人类学思想渗入古典学，担忧人类学因减少汲取古典学的养分而丢失其本来的品质。克拉克洪指出，人类学的根基是人文与科学，此二者均为古希腊人的发明，现代新人类学要保持其品格，便有必要重返古希腊。鉴于克氏主张的重要性，本文力图对之加以还原，并在此基础上进行反思。本文认为，克拉克洪有规避西学人类学的神学关联及过度渲染古希腊特殊性的倾向，更存在以“文化”概念“消化”文野关联的问题。要扭转这类倾向，克服这类问题，应有选择地丰富古典旧人类学有关“中间环节”的看法。     

Letter to the editor: On plurality and authorship in science

Moffatt argues that the “plurality of distinct accounts of scientific authorship” necessitates caution in attempts to identify unethical authorship practices, and urges that considerations be given to establishing a “single consensus account of authorship.” The revised International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria do capture the essential features of authorship in terms of “intellectual contribution” and “responsibility and accountability,” which would clearly demarcate academically legitimate authorship from the common misdemeanors of ghost writing and honorary authorship. However, plurality in the practice of science and credit-sharing culture at the ground would likely render universal adoption or compliance of a single consensus account of authorship untenable.     

Supporting Family Members to View the Body after a Violent or Sudden Death: A Role for Social Work

Supporting family members to view the body of their relative after a traumatic death is a critical role for social workers in hospital and morgue settings; however, this role has had little attention in the literature. In-depth interviews with 48 bereaved family members explored their experiences of helpful and unhelpful aspects of support when viewing the body of their deceased relative. A central theme of “support as a relational interaction” was identified. Aspects of the connection and communication valued by participants within this relational interaction included: “permissions and possibilities,” “information and preparation,” “presenting with care,” “time and timing,” and “tuning to family.” These results are considered with grief practice and theory, to suggest the need for social workers to actively engage with working in the interface between the deceased body and the grieving family. This includes advocating a private location for time with the body and using interpersonal skills to provide paced and dosed information for preparation to view that is consistent with the capacities and needs of the individual and family.     

芝加哥舞女、中国洗衣工与北平囚犯:都市中的陌生人

本文指出，受齐美尔“陌生人”命题启发的“边缘人”概念，体现了形式社会学与美国实用主义在芝加哥学派理论中的交融，并催生了以考察个体生命史为核心的研究方法。通过比较二十世纪初芝加哥学派的学者运用生命史的视角对三类都市陌生人（芝加哥舞女、中国洗衣工与北平囚犯）的研究，本文考察不同人群的新旧历程及其进入都市新生活的不同状态。研究发现，无论是身处异国的中国洗衣工，还是背井离乡进入城市生活并沦为罪犯的中国农民，都不能以“边缘人”抛弃乡土与家族的个体化方式进入都市生活。文章最后尝试以帕克对“文明”的讨论来解释现代个体进入都市生活时呈现的不同状态。     

From fun to fraught: marketing to kids and regulating “risky foods” in Canada

ABSTRACT

In an era of industrialized food production, ultra-processed foods, “Big Food” marketing, and growing obesity rates, food has come to be framed as an object of risk – and as an object of regulation. Such reframing has fascinating implications related to issues of responsibility and decision making, especially when it comes to children’s food. This article probes the relationship between representation, regulation and “risky” consumption with respect to children’s food. I examine how child-targeted foods become framed as “risky” and what counts as “risky” food messaging under Health Canada’s commitment to restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods to children. Detailing the tension between food as a risk object and food as a child object, I suggest how issues of semantic provisioning and the politics of the unseen work to complicate and destabilize the (seemingly) straightforward process of prohibiting unhealthy food marketing to children.     

Studying democratic innovations: toward a problem-driven approach to case study research

ABSTRACT

Hajer and Wagenaar (2003. Deliberative Policy Analysis: Understanding Governance in the Network Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xiv, 16) advanced a conception of policy analysis – “Deliberative Policy Analysis” – that “rests on three pillars: interpretation, practice and deliberation.” This form of policy analysis, they argued, supports “more direct, participatory forms of democracy” involving “democratic deliberation on concrete issues” (xv, 29). Since their writing, empirical research on such initiatives – “democratic innovations,” for short – has blossomed. However, while deliberative policy analysis is itself post-positivist in orientation, many researchers bring a (quasi-) positivist orientation to their work on democratic innovations. A key challenge for deliberative policy analysts is, then, how to participate in this field of inquiry while maintaining a post-positivist orientation. Pragmatist philosophy, I submit, can help them to meet this challenge. Pragmatism rejects a number of positivist assumptions about the nature of empirical inquiry. Relatedly, it supports the claim that policy analysis should be interpretive, practice-oriented, and deliberative. Indeed, it suggests that policy analysis cannot avoid being so. By way of illustration, I indicate how pragmatism points to an approach to case study research that rests on the three pillars.     

The Intrinsic Influence of the Poetics of Yanzhi on Modern Chinese Literature

否定与批判“言志”诗学, 曾是中国现代文学转型的标志。但从五四新文学开 始, “言志”诗学不仅没有被剔出中国现代文学的审美范畴, 相反, 却借助于西方 话语得到合理的传承。“言”救亡图存的启蒙之“志”, 与“抒”忧国忧民的个人 之“情”, 中国现代文学都未摆脱“志”者“大情”、“情”者“小志”的传统思 维, 具体表现在: 主“思”派提倡文学创作的功利意识, 进而以“志”代“情”回归 “道”统; 主“情”派则提倡文学创作的真情实感, 进而以“情”传“志”, 回归 “道”统。中国现代文学的理论与实践, 虽然涂抹着光怪陆离的“西化”色彩, 但 其重新“释道”与巧妙“言志”的本质特征, 恰恰表明了它对传统文化的价值认同, 而不是简单地抛弃“传统”后走向了“西方”。

关键词: “言志”诗学 “志”与“道” “志”与“情” 古典主义

Rejection and denunciation of the poetics of “yanzhi” (literally “expressing one’s thought or ideals”) was once a marker of Chinese literature’s modern transformation. However, right from the beginning of May Fourth new literature, the poetics of “yanzhi” was not only not cast out of the aesthetic canon of modern Chinese literature but was, on the contrary, legitimately transmitted via Western discourse. Whether modern Chinese writers were expressing enlightenment ideas of saving the nation or voicing their personal feelings for their country and their people, they remained convinced that “zhi” was “feelings” writ large and “feelings” were a lesser form of “zhi.” Specifically, the school stressing the idea that “literature expresses thought” advocated utilitarian literary creation and returned to the traditional Chinese poetics of “yanzhi” by replacing “feelings” with “zhi.” Those stressing the idea that “literature expresses feelings” advocated writing with genuine emotion; they went on to express “zhi” via “feelings,” thus returning to the traditional Chinese way of thought. Both the theory and practice of modern Chinese literature have a strange “Western” tint. Nevertheless, this literature’s essential character of “reinterpreting the ‘dao’ (way)” and sophisticated “expression of thought” or “yanzhi” indicate its value identification with traditional culture rather than the simple abandonment of “tradition” in pursuit of “the West.”     

From “State and Society” to “Institutions and Life”: A Shift in the Study of Social Change in China

Abstract

The term “institutions and life” is proposed as an alternative perspective to “state and society.” Here, “institutions” refers to formal institutions set up in the name of the state and supporting its agents at various levels and in different departments in the exercise of their functions. “Life” refers to the everyday activities of social beings, involving not only the interests, powers and rights-based claims of expedient production and life strategies and techniques, but also relatively routine popular mores and informal institutions. The purpose of constructing and applying this perspective is to probe the complex mechanism of the interaction between living subjects and the agents of formal institutions in institutional practice and thereby analyze the actual logic and changing direction of China’s formal institutions and explore the mechanisms behind changes in mores so as to grasp the main thread running through China’s modern nation building.     

From Pavement to Piazza: Grassroots Social Work to Counteract the Globalization of Marginality

This paper—inspired by the experience of grassroots social work in Naples begun by M. Borrelli in the 1950s—emphasizes that “consciousness‐raising” and “community development” can be useful processes to stimulate responsible social participation on the part of the most marginal individuals and groups. To overcome a bureaucratic and pietistic model of the welfare state which serves in the long run to increase their dependence and socio‐cultural subordination, there is a need for alternative social policies, capable of improving people's empowerment and social citizenship. Giving more resources and decision‐making power to the most marginal could amount to changing an unfair and oppressive society from the roots up. This goal remains a moral imperative for both professional and voluntary social workers who believe in a fair, non‐violent and ecological model of development. Unfortunately, in Italy as elsewhere, neo‐liberal reforms of welfare states are tending in the opposite direction, partly as a result of out‐of‐date functionalist theories and by means of a worrying process of welfare marketization and globalization that actually increases the exclusion and marginality of the lower classes. This paper takes issue with current neo‐liberal trends by returning to a territory‐based and resident‐focused image of social work. This way, non‐profit agencies can play a more active and stimulating role in support of communitarian networks and help avoid the risk of the Third Sector's alternative spur being compromised by the otherwise “commodification” of welfare. Only in this way might one stop the transformation of non‐profit organizations into mere private providers for a buyer/controller state, more business‐minded than really concerned with freeing the poor and the marginal “underclass” from subordination and exclusion.     

Is the BasicsCard “shaming” Aboriginal people? Exploring the differing responses to welfare quarantining in Cape York

As part of the Cape York Welfare Reform Trial (CYWRT), which has been running in the remote Aboriginal towns of Aurukun, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge and Coen since 2008, Family Responsibilities Commissioners have the unprecedented ability to quarantine welfare payments. Critics claim this “BasicsCard,” which cannot be spent on alcohol, tobacco, pornography or gambling, brings shame to Aboriginal people – marking them as dependants, deemed incapable of responsible spending. Evaluations of the CYWRT paint a more complicated picture. While many of the “spectators” of the CYWRT report “welfare reform stigma,” the “subjects” themselves are more positive. This paper draws on ethnographic research in Hope Vale to argue that these categories overlap with loosely defined, porous social groups that developed during the town's mission past, described as the “engaged” and “embedded” Hope Valers, respectively. The engaged group tends to be more aware of and sensitive to the views of the dominant society and to subscribe to its “ideology of respectability.” Meanwhile, the latter group tends to adhere to a more egalitarian “ideology of relatedness,” and do not experience the shame, even when their own welfare is quarantined, because the behaviours that trigger quarantining are normalised within their highly circumscribed domain.     

Revisiting demand,politicization and externalization in authoritarian political regimes: policy advisory system in Russian practices

ABSTRACT

This study contributes to debate on three related questions in Policy Advisory System research. Is the Policy Advisory System concept applicable in countries other than developed democracies? How does it function in a state-centred authoritarian regime? How does the authoritarian environment affect tendencies such as “politicization” and “externalization”? These questions are addressed using materials on the current Russian governance structure and advisory practices, focusing on two broadly defined “governance subsystems” in the Presidential Administration of Russia, “Political Bloc” and “Economic Bloc”, both acting as regular customers for advisory communities. One finding is the phenomenon of “Dual Demand” from the same centre of power—“stability” for “Political Bloc” and “innovation” for “Economic Bloc”—which contributed to creation of two different clusters of policy advisory agencies with different statuses. Other findings include transformation of “politicization” to policy control mechanisms and attempted “externalization” turning into the reverse—“internalization”—bringing independent advisory organizations under the supervision of government structures.     

COI Policies: Tax Dollars Should Not Be Used to Fund U.S. Institutions Not Making the Grade

Over two billion dollars was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in research funding from 2010 to March 2012 to institutions receiving a grade of “C,” “D,” or “F” on their conflict of interest policies, as determined by the American Medical Student Association's scorecard on conflict of interest policies. More institutional oversight is needed with regard to assuring conflict of interest policies at U.S. research institutions are adequate. As stewards of public funds, HHS should require a minimum standard which institutional conflict of interest policies should meet, beyond current regulatory requirements, before granting funding.     

You Don't Always Have to Pick Up Your Mess Right Away: How Being Messy Can Be Really Neat!

SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a first year student's field placement experience at a group home for mentally ill adolescent boys. Upon discovering she has to “un-learn” past “learned” group work skills, she eagerly anticipates future opportunities to utilize “re-learned” theory acquired from major method course readings and lectures. Once in the field, she confronts the difficulties that this presents. The following is an account of the fears and frustrations as well as the joys and rewards one student encountered while attempting to apply and practice group work methodology in the field.     

A Joined-up Approach to User Participation in Public Services: Strengthening the "Participation Chain"

Participation has emerged as a key theme for social policy and administration in the UK. Public service providers are often keen to consult users, and users themselves want to make their voices heard. Despite this, however, there is a perennial problem in getting people to participate, and participation is often better supported in principle than in practice. The motivations of key actors are crucial, but are often poorly understood. This article attempts to build a more detailed understanding of the motivations to participate of one key group: service users. Using Mutual Incentives Theory, it shows the extent to which users are motivated by individualistic or collectivistic concerns. These “demand side” factors are then combined with others on the “supply side” in a model we call the “participation chain”. This model provides a systematic framework for understanding what makes public service users participate, and seeks to demonstrate that, while the question of participation requires a combination of answers, it is a combination that can be predicted, planned for and acted upon.     

从臣民到市民：韦伯著作中的城市类型学、城市的动态演变与非正当性支配研究

韦伯“正当性支配”的概念可分为“权威主义命令权”与“正当性信仰”两个要素。在现代政治秩序的视域下，二者的失调威胁到秩序的稳定，造成了“正当性危机”，而应对之道就是重新整合“正当性信仰”，同时避免过度整合带来的对“日常需求”的破坏。本文从韦伯“非正当性支配”入手，通过对中世纪西方城市的类型学比较以及对城市市民的身份特征、生活—工作风格、政治诉求、参与法律过程的分析，发现“非正当性支配”提供了一条西方文明特有的自下而上能够保全“日常需求”的路径，从而给“正当性信仰”的整合以及“正当性危机”的解决提供了新的可能性。