How To Disassemble Society

This paper tries to explain the phenomenon of rural school consolidation based on a case study, it mainly focus on the transition of state-society relationship. To be specific, the paper discusses the process of rural educational reform, and how this process affects rural society. The paper argues policy process and its consequences should be further studied, because it helps us understand how education shapes the whole society. Rural society is facing lots of difficulties that reflected the structural tension of larger society. As a result, we need to reflect on the whole process of China’s modernizing.We propose to focus on the perspective of action, using the top-down and bottom-up approaches. From top-down approach, it’s mainly about how rural education system is reformed; from bottom-up perspective, the paper discusses the agency of social actors and how their action influence social structure.In conclusion, it is argued that “school consolidation” policy is aiming at eliminating village schools. Village schools played important parts in china’s compulsory education development, and as a vital role in the rural social reproduction process. The end of village schools indicates the end of rural education. The new education system is basically urban-oriented, which also means rural school helps individuals to be integrated with the outside world. As a result, rural society is at great risk and social differentiation accelerates. We argue that village schools paly a great role in rural society. China’s urbanization should not be promoted at the cost of rural society. By reinterpret the policy logic of “rural school consolidation”, we try to explore the possible solutions.