Scholarship And Social Trends: A Sociological Look At Mainland Chinese Rural Political Studies Since 1990 As A Public Academic Movement

This dissertation is a "re-study" of mainland Chinese rural political studies since 1990. Under the theme of "scholarship and social trends", this study has two main goals: (1) to write an academic history of rural political studies since 1990, and (2) on this basis and from a perspective of the sociology of knowledge, to analyze this body of scholarship as a public academic movement.This study treats this body of scholarship as a particular event and academic movement, locating this "event" and "process" on the historical stage that influenced, determined and shaped its growth and development, making clear the causes of its development, sketching the trajectory of its transformations, and summarizing the influences, contributions and dead ends of this scholarship. At the same time, this study investigates the broader social background that made this academic movement possible, the various forces taking part in the movement's development and their clashes, overlaps and fusions, the intertwining and tensions between this movement and these social factors, and the influence of this situation on the trajectory and characteristics of rural political studies. Finally, this study examines the mutual interaction between such academic scholarship and broader social trends (shehui shishi), disclosing the secrets of this interactive process.This dissertation argues that the reason rural political studies became a salient point of political propaganda and academic scholarship in the 1990s was not only the efforts of scholars to change their contemporary situation through academic breakthroughs, but also the contingent effects of sociopolitical changes in China and the international environment. This study thus aims to uncover the "process," "event" and "experience" of the rise, development and differentiation of rural political studies, understood as a public academic movement whose history has not yet come to an end. How have the "processes" and "events" that emerged alongside and participated in this history influenced these academic explorations, and what is their significance? What kind of logic underlies this movement?This study analyzes the interaction between scholarship and social trends by highlighting four threads and three relationships. The four threads are (1) the broad context of the international situation and China's social transformations during the reform era, (2) the political and social transformation of rural China, including the implementation of villager self-government, (3) broad trends of academic thought, inasmuch as they relate to rural political studies, and (4) the trajectory of the rise and transformation of rural political studies in particular. These are the four main aspects of this study. The "social trends" in the title refers to the first three aspects, and the "scholarship" refers to the fourth.The three relationships highlighted in this study are the relations between this "scholarship" and these three "social trends," that is, the relation between rural political studies and (1) the broad national and international context, (2) the social transformation of rural China and the implementation of villager self-government, and (3) broader academic trends. At certain moments rural political studies interacts with one of these three factors individually, at other times with two, and at still other times with all three in combination.This dissertation is organized according to these four threads and their three forms of interrelating. The first two chapters introduce the social context and begin to trace the early stage of rural political studies. The next three chapters examine the rise, development, and transformation of this scholarship against the background of these "social trends" and in the atmosphere they gave rise to, focusing on certain particular events, theories, and the activities of certain academic groups and individual scholars.In addition to tracing and sorting out these threads, this "micro-history" also summarizes and reflects upon the characteristics, effects and influences of this "academic movement", and on this basis raises some questions about the past twenty or thirty years of transformations of Chinese social science and Chinese society.