Villagers' Actions And Villages In Order

This paper is an empirical study on social actions. Under the guidance of social actions theories, the author's attention is concentrated on the practical actions of individuals in their lifeworld, emphasizing on the subjectivity and initiative of social actors. Based on the materials gained from field work study, this paper is an empirical study on the Chinese localization of the social actors'mode of actions and the relationship between social actions and social order. Taking leading industries, the level of economic development, ethnic diversity and other factors into consideration, this paper chooses Mengcun Hui Autonomous County in Hebei Province as the research area. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used in the fieldwork in three villages of different types, in order to study the impact factors, the choices and the results of villagers'actions.This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter I, the Introduction, briefly introduces the origin of the study and the research topic, and also includes documentary reviews and a brief description of the research area. On top of this, the author carries about a detailed demonstration on the related concepts, analysis framework and research methods in the paper. Chapterâ…¡mainly focuses on the first major impact factor of social actions-the environment. The author discusses the impact that different environment exerted on the social actions of individuals from three aspects:the geographical environment, historical context and institutional environment. In Chapterâ…¢, the author mainly analyzes the second major impact factor-the resources. In the society, individuals hold different personal and social resources, and the differences in resource result in the different choices of social actors in the similar environment. Chapter IV concentrates on the way villagers use the environment and resources to build their own place in the social system, both in economical and everyday life. Chapter V discusses the results of social actions. The actions of individuals are interlinked, and they constructed the economic order and the social order of the village. Chapter VI, Conclusions and Discussions, puts forward this paper's basic discovery, and also presents its significance and key issues for further study.The author finds, by summarizing the empirical materials, that although different types of actors in the village show significant differences in their options for action, their modes of action are actually similar. With the rapid social transition, the environment and resources are becoming two critical factors on the social action of individuals in rural areas. Environment, resources, social actors and the practical actions done by the actors, these four interweaving factors work in a complicated way, which means that either two factors are enormously affected by each other. Actions of individuals in their daily situations are not always clear goal-oriented ones. Individuals often subconsciously make decisions for their own actions. Such actions may not bring their interest to the largest, but they could be accepted. That is to say, within the environment resources framework, social actors make adaptive actions in certain situations, following suitable logic and fuzzy logic. The results of the villagers'related action are manifested in the village order. Moreover, the order of the village, as the environment and resources hold by the social actors, affect them in the process of making new action choices. Between social actions and social order, there formed the mutual construction and reciprocating progressive change process.Social action has long been a main theme of sociological research. Based on the empirical materials of localization in China, this study answers human social action and social order construction and other core issues of sociology. Although the analytical framework of the mode of social actions is derived from the study on villagers in Hebei, its scope is by no means limited. The author believes that, the conclusions of this paper holds their general reference value in analyzing the never-leave-home individuals in the transformation of Chinese society.