The Symbolic And Dualistic Structure In China

There are multivariate social changes since the reform in China, among which social structure transition between city and countryside is an important part. The research of it before was mainly at macroscopic and substantive angle, but symbolic and micro level was lacking relatively. In fact, in the view of many contemporary sociologists such as Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu, social structure is no longer viewed as outside object, but as practical process with social actions and subjective consciousness. According to the theoretical construction of contemporary sociology and the background of Chinese social transition, I think the research on city-countryside social structure transition needs a micro-turn of direction. As to this, we put forward the view of"symbolic society", from which we see that a series of medium informations and symbolic marks in the city more and more become classification tools and construction mechanisms of social status."Symbolic society"includes the following meanings at least. Firstly, the manufacture,transmission, receiving, rejection, digestion and improvement of informations become an indivisible part of people's everyday life, so that they usually read the meanings of social life according to certain informations or symbolic systems. Secondly, external causes but not internal ones are more and more becoming decisive factors of social activities, so people usually accept the leading and constructing of exterior informations actively or passively. Thirdly, the actions of manufacture, occupation and operation of informations and symbolic systems mean power domination. The one who owns informations and discourse powers can impose his own meaning frames on other people by force, from which status distinction logic generates through production and dissemination of informations and symbolic systems. Therefore, the city where informations and symbolic marks are dispersing extensively is not a uniform society, but is a field of fights for symbolic marks and status territories.At the angle of"symbolic society", the factors such as the body characteristics of attire, gesture, expression, language and the ones of residences and their pattern, size, function and so on, which are taken by peasant migrants and signify their social status, should be brought into the analysis of social transition between city and countryside. These symbolic marks are usually utilized by urban discourses (such as medium informations, text frames, social evaluations), so as to construct peasant migrants'social status and model their self-consciousness and social identity. These problems are contained in the research of social transition, which can be considered as micro-aspect and humane dimension of social structure research. The micro-aspect emphasizes that these problems with space, discourse and identity exist in people's daily life, and macroscopic view is usually inadequate, and the humane dimension means they usually can't be researched by quantitative methods. So"using minds"is as important as"using tools".Not only in the sense of comparison between tradition and modernity the problems of body, space, identity and discourse have great differences, but also between different groups they are usually related with social status, prestige and so on. Just because of this relation, we can say body and space marks have symbolic meanings and social distinction strength. This makes me try to connect the symbolic meanings of micro-phenomena with macroscopic social structure, from which we can investigate the tendency of city-countryside social structure transition. In my opinion, there are dualistic characteristics and tendency of body, space, identity between urban groups and peasant migrant groups, which is not only physical and outside facts, but also cultural and hidden ones. We can use the concept"symbolic and dualistic structure"to summarize it.Symbolic and dualistic structure can be considered as the polarized tendency of social symbolic systems and their movements, which shows the duality and inequality in status and reputation between different groups,and it becames the micro-construction mechanism of social status classification. The most outstanding characteristic of symbolic and dualistic structure is that the symbolic marks on peasant migrants'bodies are moving from"between countryside and city"to"into city", and then highlight more direct city-countryside dualistic structure. During the course of social change since reform, the function of symbolic and dualistic structure transforms from class distinction into everyday life gradually. The symbolic and dualistic structure becomes micro-mechanism in production of people's status and reputation between different social groups.The body with attire, language, gesture, expression and so on as its tokens is the important sign of social status,so it has important symbolic implication. The peasant migrant groups with body marks in city take the status boundary between rural and urban area into city, so as to make the boundary more obvious. So called"a crane among cocks"but not"the crane far from cocks"can shows the difference between"crane"and"cock"more directly. In the comparison between city and countryside, the body as symbolic marks presents dualistic trend. Namely, various characteristics of body show the opposition of two symbolic systems, and they show the social distinction and inequality between citizens and peasant migrant groups and even between higher social layers and the lower ones.The process of social transition is also the one of space change. A series of governmentalities of CPC before reform made social space marked with political ideology brands. This phenomenon has been weakening along with the reform process, so social space presents a course of"de-politics". However, the gap in institution and status distinction and in development point and speed between city and countryside causes"politicized again"of social space."Politicized again"exists clearly in the life locuses of peasant migrant groups. There is fresh and clear contrast between peasant migrants'"flowing community"and mansions in city. Peasant migrants'life space is marked with their"otherness"and the boundary between countryside and city symbolically. This new kind of social space means the inequality in ability, opportunity and capacity of space occupancy between peasant migrants and city inhabitants, which then reflects the symbolic and dualistic structure between city and countryside in space.The symbolic marks like body, space don't only exist in peasant migrants'life, but also accumulate into their minds deeply, and then construct their self-consciousness and social identity, which are conflicting with each other. What is to say, their self-identity is not from self-consciousness accumulation, but under the construction of unidirectional discourse frames from city. This makes them usually accept the figure codes from city seat passively. In the meantime, the dependence on relative networks reflects their distrust on strangers and the absence of state and institution in social mobility. But, in fact, the state's absence means its firm existence from the angle that the nation's figure can be seen from the comparison between city and countryside. The facts above make peasant migrants'self-identity placed under the manipulation of social strength, and difficult to be consistent with their social identity. The gap between the two leads to the generation and continuity of peasant migrants'"dualistic mind".In the sense of social constructive theory, status as a kind of social fact isn't fixed and unchangeable, but is subjected to social meanings and values. The contents of mass media are from social lives, then construct social phenomena and furthermore construct a picture of symbolic order, which is the one of social classification and rejection. The mass media is a tool of social classification. It is usually seen from a kind of antinomy description in China. What is to say, the following comparative facts as progress-backwardness, awakening-obscuration, independence-dependence are usually interweaved together between city and countryside and then in peasant migrants of their own. The"abstraction"and"otherness"of peasant migrants is the consequence of social distinction, and serves as a foil to the elites'advance and superiority in urban community. In the"I-he"classification system, the symbolic discourses also present dualistic pattern.The symbolic and dualistic structure which mainly contains the aspects of body, space, identity and discourse is the micro-reflection of macroscopic and outside social structure. It permeates into people's everyday life, turns into the mind schema or temperament inclination and participates into the reproduction of social structure by operating people's thought and behavior. The state usually makes use of mass medium and symbolic marks to construct a"problematical village-dreamlike city"narration, in which"dream"becomes the main pursuance and"problem"is the objective to transcend and further reflect the attraction of"dream". Therefore, the cultural construction of symbolic factors by the state takes the function of closing the gap between"objective modernity"and"expressive modernity".In brief, this thesis tries to reveal the micro-characteristics of social structure between countryside and city in China from symbolic angle. Although the economic and political reform has reversed the condition of old dualistic structure between city and countryside, the separation and status resistance is still lasting in people's mental world. Peasant migrants'life makes us realize more directly that the dualistic structure engraved within people's body, space, identity and idea don't end, but is even fresher and clear. In the condition that the interaction is increasing between city and countryside and"harmony society"discourse earns popular supports, how to decrease the policy and status discrimination of peasant migrant groups, and to increase their national treatment which should be had, is the responsibility that can't be neglected, regardless to policy makers or to academic researchers.