Cultivation And Adjustment :an Ethno-sociological Approach Toward The Muslims' Public Life In Lanzhou City

The thesis mainly studies the publicness of urban Muslim and multiple blending of Muslims' public sphere under the background of contemporary Chinese society from the perspective of Muslims' public life in Lanzhou City.The fieldwork in this research covers mosques,Muslim communities,Muslim social groups and Muslim network media in Lanzhou City.With Muslims' public sphere defined as a micro public sphere coexisted in the local community and macro public sphere in China,the thesis makes specific research on the construction of public sphere,interaction among public figures,practice of public activities and public opinion,aiming to find out the fundamental elements in the construction of public sphere and the way they interact with each other in the process of cultivation and development.It is believed that the society and the state provide the construction of Muslim public sphere with prerequisites for its existence and development.Moreover,religious belief,as an endogenous force in Muslim public sphere,also plays a significant role in the process.The thesis tries to present how Muslims construct their public sphere,integrate into local society and contribute to the cultural construction and harmonious development of the whole nation with great enthusiasm.The core of public sphere is its publicness,which is composed of organization of public life,operation regulation and relevant value etc.It plays a key role in construction of public sphere,therefore publicness becomes the standard distinguishing public life from ordinary social life,and the research to construction of public sphere is in nature to explore the construction of publicness.Public sphere in different society contains different publicness;so it shows various public life style and public sphere structure.Lanzhou Muslims' public areas have distinctive characteristics different from other public areas has two aspects: on the one hand,the particularity and the local Muslim community in Lanzhou itself has decided its public life needs of the national and local social policy support and guarantee of survival.At the same time,the traditional Chinese culture and the consciousness of the Chinese nation community constitute the basic value system and construction elements of the Muslim public sphere.On the other hand,the main body of Muslims' public sphere is a social group with common religious beliefs.Habermas fully affirmed the role of religion in the construction of publicity.Religion has its own public attribute,which is the culture shared by the believers.Therefore,the study of the construction of Muslims' public sphere in Lanzhou also needs to consider the factors of religious belief.The nested public sphere proposed by Charles Taylor nested the small public sphere in the large public sphere.They interact and communicate with each other,such as energy,information and resources.This study is on the premise of social,political,economic and religious factors in the construction of the public sphere,the construction of the public focus on Muslim areas of public life,focusing on the interaction between the various elements of the construction path of fusion and their formation.Sociology and related research are less concerned about the relationship between public construction and public factors from the perspective of public life practice of specific ethnic groups.The anthropology and ethnology through field investigation,in-depth social practice way to the public and the public domain of a certain group of construction research,can give full play to the advantages in this field of research,and promote the overall development of the subject.Although sociology provides theories and ideas of construction to publicness research,religious functions on public construction----inductive function on secular life,and maintaining condition of public sphere on religion----are hard to unfold.By highlighting specific persons and issues as well as their discourses in daily public life,religion and secular life being unifying in the practice of public life,the thesis reveals the role and value of religious belief in Muslims' public sphere,which is helpful to form an all-round objective understanding to the relationship between religion and public construction.As theory research from interdisciplinary perspective is the basic method of academic research,the thesis analyzes the role that religious belief plays in the construction of public sphere in local environment from multidisciplinary perspectives including anthropology,ethnology and sociology etc.The thesis is based on the field investigation and bibliographical information,so it is actually an ethnographical work of Muslim life in urban society.Religious belief plays a vital role in public construction,and realizes its cultivation and development in this process.Thus the basic idea of this thesis is how to realize the interaction and adjustment between religion and secular life in public sphere,and ultimately develop into rational public orders so as to help Muslims achieve happy life.The first chapter mainly describes the location of the fieldwork,social and cultural background of Muslims' public sphere in Lanzhou City.The second chapter explores the concepts and practice of Muslims' public sphere in Lanzhou City from two aspects: essential factors of its publicness and historical development.The third chapter discusses the carriers of Muslims' sphere----the form,transition and generation mode of public sphere.The fourth chapter focuses on the Muslim people and their relationships in public sphere,which is an also known as public role.The fifth chapter emphasizes the value of interaction and rational communication to the construction of public sphere by employing the broad notion of public sphere,Muslim life-world.In the sixth chapter,public opinion is treated as the products of public life and normative regulation of public sphere.The conclusion of the thesis can be summarized in the following aspects:Firstly,Muslims' public sphere is constructed under the influence of secular society and the endogenous forces of religious belief.Its ways of construction driven by internal and external forces from Muslim people,are the construction of public sphere,interaction of public roles,public practice and public opinion.They are inseparably interconnected with each other and make public sphere in a dynamic change of self-adjustment.Secondly,religious belief is the special resource of norm in Muslims' public sphere,which is a specific public indicator that distinguishes Muslims' public sphere from other social public sphere.Public opinion is the build-in order generator of public sphere,while rational communication is the driving force to the subject construction in public life and implementation standard;social order is the safeguard to the public sphere.Religious belief,integrated with the public opinion and communicative rationality,is the main content of public life order,although it is not generated from social order.Thirdly,publicness of Muslim public sphere has a rich connotation,which includes collective consciousness,emotion,memory,interests etc.These contents closely connected with religious belief in the community.Openness,freedom,equality and rationality form the value orientation of Muslims' publicness,which is not only the value standard of secular society,but also the ethic norm of religious belief.In brief,the construction of Muslims' public sphere is the result of teamwork.Multiple construction forces and belief systems are unified by the rationality of publicness.Religious belief is a significant factor and force among them,which constructs the Muslims' public sphere along with other construction forces.Religion has entered into public sphere and become a part of publicness,interacting with secularity,and adjusting to the modern society,while the vitality of public sphere has been guaranteed in the process of interaction.The construction of Muslims' public sphere is achieved by removing the misunderstanding between religion and secularity,which is of great significance in strengthening understanding between different ethnic groups,raising Chinese nation's consciousness of nationality community and maintaining the harmony of the society.