Author: hwang jia-ryung, deputy secretary of the party committee of the faculty of social and demographic sciences of the people's university of china, research fellow of the chinese institute of socialist thoughts for the chinese characteristics of the new age of the people's university of china
To speed up the construction of chinese philosophies and social sciences, ultimately the building of an autonomous knowledge system in china. Since its introduction from the west, chinese sociology has faced major crises and localization. Building chinese identity sociology is the dream of several generations of chinese sociologists, and achieving this goal must build an autonomous knowledge system. As a study aimed at society, the ways and means of understanding society determine the way in which knowledge is produced in sociology and relate directly to the construction of autonomous knowledge systems. To accelerate the construction of an autonomous knowledge system for sociology in china, efforts need to be made to raise the awareness of chinese sociology methods。
Chinese sociology method crisis and self-consciousness
After more than a hundred years of development, particularly since the restoration of reconstruction, china's sociology has made remarkable progress in scientific research, human training and social services. It has become an important basic subject in the country's social sciences. It has also introduced chinese sociology theories such as the theory of small towns, the theory of the diversity of the chinese nation, the theory of social functioning, the theory of social transition, the theory of social interaction and the theory of social construction. In general, however, china’s autonomous knowledge system of sociology has not yet been built up, highlighting the theoretical framework, conceptual tools, research methods and so on that we have used in our research, which are largely western in nature and are isolated from china’s own practice. This has led to a double “disappointment” crisis in chinese sociology: on the one hand, “disappointment” in the world sociology field, i. E., a lack of voice and equal dialogue in international academia. On the other hand, in the face of china's reality, it is “failed”, namely, a lack of theoretical overview and forward-looking leadership of the great times of change and great innovations。
The birth of chinese sociology stems mainly from the transfer of knowledge of western sociology. In his late years, fayssy recalled that in the sociology classes of the 1930s, not only did all teaching materials and reference materials come from the west, but even “the use of chinese to speak western social thought is a memorable event”, because “it is more difficult to express western concepts in chinese than to make western clothes with chinese clothing”. Since then, with the combined efforts of a number of sociologists, sociology has achieved some success in china, leading to the emergence of first-sized schools, such as marxist schools, community schools, village construction schools, colleges, etc., but for various reasons this indigenousization has been relatively brief. In the process of reconstruction, chinese sociology has opened up a larger transplant to western sociology, particularly in the united states. Through this intensive “knowledge-induction movement”, chinese sociology quickly completed the construction of knowledge and discipline systems, but it was also inevitable to establish dependency on western sociology. Although from the outset sociologists have called for and committed themselves to promoting sociology in china, there is still a long way to go to break the western sociology discourse。
China's sociology attachment to western sociology appears to be based on theory, concepts, discourse and so on, but the deeper question behind it is a methodological crisis. This can be seen at two levels: first, at the methodological level of specific research, many of the studies remain mechanically applied to western sociological research techniques, are keen on “technologies” and ignore the “human mind” and “society” behind them, and are mired in the “methodicalism” called “methodologicalism” by totei tung, whose results are both normative and even cutting-edge in form, but do not reach out to the real chinese society or even mislead reality. Second, at the methodological level, a number of studies have used the western sociology model in a simple way to interpret chinese practice, or to find problems in western sociology's theoretical context, often in the context of other people's mindsets and linguistic systems, lacking their own bodyism, called chinese research and “china” lacking a theoretical summary based on chinese identity systems and practices, culture, and humanism。
It is these methodological aspects that make the thinking and methodology of the sociological analysis in china subject to western sociological domination. In order to change china's weak sociology position and enable it to engage in dialogue with the international community on an equal footing and to respond to the great changes of the times, there is an urgent need to raise the awareness of methods and build on them to accelerate the construction of autonomous knowledge systems. The so-called sociology approach, which draws on fahrenheit's definition of cultural self-consciousness, means that sociological researchers need to have “self-aware” and maintain a strong sense of reflection on the methodology and specific methods they use in their research, to understand their origins, processes of formation, characteristics and trends in development, to reflect on their applicability in the chinese context and to actually explore ways to better understand chinese society from a sociological perspective。
Scientific properties and values in chinese sociology
The approach to sociology is self-conscious, starting with reflection on the academic attributes of sociology. Scientific and value-based struggles have almost always permeated sociological development and have resulted in the separation of empirical and humanistic sociology. In the process of rehabilitation and reconstruction, chinese sociology has been introduced mainly through long american traditions and styles of quantitative analysis and micro-research, with particular emphasis on science. This is essential for the rapid establishment of sociological disciplines, but it also largely ignores the aspect of sociological values, even the deliberate exclusion of value pursuits under the slogan of “value neutrality” and the emergence of such salient issues as “social exclusion”, “many social science research, which starts by looking at people as machines, then using them for research.” in its late years, fahrenheit made an in-depth reflection on this issue and put forward the theme “enlarge the traditional boundaries of sociology”。
As a social science discipline, sociology should not lose sight of value. In the absence of value-seeking, sociology loses its vision of the social pulse and the impetus for social progress. Fundamentally, science and value are two sides of the same spectrum of sociology, and the basis of this convergence lies in the other, practical, attributes of sociology. “the whole life of society is essentially a matter of practice”, which is a fundamental attribute of social studies that are addressed to society. Practice, on the other hand, is a process of interlocking and interacting between reason and sense, objectivity and subjectivity, structure and action. The science and value of sociology are integrated into practice. So long as sociology is truly based on the fundamental propositions of social practice and the underlying logic behind social practice, it necessarily combines scientific and value dimensions。
Chinese academics are concerned with the traditional and value-based pursuits of life, the appreciation of society and its generational use. The world today is in the midst of a century-long and unprecedented social change that poses great challenges to human awareness. The fundamental responsibility of chinese sociology is to respond to such a dramatic change in history and to serve china's great modernity. This requires researchers to broaden their horizons, to look at china as a country, to look at times, to build on china’s practical approach, to ask questions, to analyse problems, to solve problems, to build theories, and not to ask questions and validate assumptions from western sociological theories. In addition, the emphasis on the practical attributes of sociology means that our sociology should be “to the people's sociology”, concerned with the productive life of the people in general, and committed to improving the well-being of the people, not to be isolated from society and from the people, to be reduced to the intellectual games of a few elites who are alone, showing off their skills or selling knowledge。
Self-consciousness in how to promote sociology in the correct treatment of three relationships
Since its introduction, chinese sociology has been faced with the triple tension between china and the west, tradition and modernity, theory and practice, which zheng hang-sheng described as the three main relations between china and the west, the ancient world and the truth. The correct treatment of these three aspects is a fundamental way of raising the level of self-awareness of chinese sociology methods and a fundamental guarantee for the construction of an autonomous knowledge system of chinese sociology。
The right way to deal with central-west relations is to learn from and out of the west. The emphasis on building an autonomous knowledge system for sociology is not to sever the link with western sociology, but to move away from western centralism, focusing on what we are doing, drawing on western sociological theory and methodology, drawing on chinese experience, distilling chinese theory, building sociology with both chinese characteristics and a world view。
The proper way to deal with ancient relations is to inherit and go beyond tradition. Although sociology, as a modern social science, comes from the west, traditional chinese social thinking contains a great deal of talk about social ideals, human relations, moral order, etc., to the point that sociology is translated into “group studies” in the first instance, with great distinction and severity. China's ancient social ideas provide a rich theoretical resource for understanding today's chinese society and chinese, but at the same time they need to be creatively transformed and innovatively developed, taking into account the characteristics of modern society。
The correct handling of the relationship is based on both reality and reality. Western sociology has evolved in response to the west’s modernity, and chinese sociology is also rooted in china’s modernization process, answering questions raised in china’s great modernization practice and following a practical and academic development path. At the same time, sociological research should not be confined to the description of facts, but should also focus on the interpretation of practical experience and the development of theoretical questions。
It is only by building on reality, fully exploiting traditions, and using them rationally to learn from abroad, that china will be able to establish a sociology knowledge system based on chinese practice that integrates the best traditional culture in china, with a global perspective, and that will sustain the chinese sociology architecture。
Innovative sociological approaches in combination with specific practical and cultural traditions in china
China's sociology requires scientific understanding of chinese society, deep insight into the logic of its functioning, full grasp of the laws of chinese social practice, and a major effort to promote innovation in sociological research methods. The modern sociology approach, which is mainly western, is applied in ways that need to be constantly integrated with china's specific practical and cultural traditions to advance innovation in research methods。
It's a practical combination with china. Any approach to research is at the service of the problem and is drawn up in the context of the problem, and only an effective solution can be found. A number of classical sociological studies have led to methodological innovations in solving specific problems, such as the fact that lee king-han has summarized a set of field-based social survey methods in the practice of ding dynasty, the fact that tamong and the community-based scholars represented by u wenga and fyoto have explored community research in practice, and the fact that fyoto has proposed a type of comparison in an exploration to overcome the limitations of case studies. These methodological innovations have greatly contributed to the localization of sociology and to the construction of sociology autonomous knowledge systems。
It is a combination of chinese cultural traditions. Society is made up of a living individual who understands the human being. Chinese have unique psychological structures and modes of behaviour that can be understood only in the context of specific cultural contexts. Cognitive methods that are unique to chinese culture, such as “meaning” “sensitization”, “dense” “thinking” and “thinking better”, can be combined with modern sociological methods of field research。
In short, building an autonomous knowledge system for sociology in china requires defining the attributes of the discipline, taking on the tasks of the times, properly addressing the three relationships between china and the west, the ancient world, and the truth. Innovative research methods have been used to refine and systematize the concept of marking and key issues in an effort to answer the questions of china, the questions of the world, the questions of the people and the questions of the times。
