| Local society in China is different from civil society in the Western world.The concept of civil society came into being in the 18 th century from the historical experience of state formation in the development of capitalism in Europe,emphasizing the process of the lower society imposing active restriction on the rights of state in the upper level,and the key roles of social elites,market principles and public opinions [5].Hegel argues that in China," something invariable has replaced what is true history," Chinese history is static,and Chinese society "lacks confrontation between objective existence and subjective movement".[6] He even believes that China is a country without society [7].Such opinion is essentially based on the perspective of civil society.But Philip Alden Kuhn argues that civil society is only a theoretical "model" that never not really present itself in the West [8].The societies in the dynasties of ancient China and in modern China do not have the universal consistency of civil society based on law in the Western world,but the locality of the natural and traditional relationship.Local society emphasizes the process of social organization that spontaneously forms through horizontal links under the power of the state.Shunde,as a center located in the Pearl River Delta(the junction of the old and new deltas)was established as a county in the middle of Ming Dynasty due to the Huang Xiaoyang Uprising that posed threaten to the monarch nearly 600 years ago.Since its formation,the local society of Shunde has witnessed numerous historical changes.During the Ming and Qing dynasties,the regional agricultural production mode-mulberry-dyke fishpond was formed in the process of adaptation to and transformation and utilization of the changes to the natural environment(mainly flooding and silting)in the West and the North River Delta;In the late Qing Dynasty,Shunde local troop that was summoned because of the Sino-French War became a leading organ of Guangdong troop;in the end of Qing Dynasty,it became a pioneer of industrial modernization in China;since the late 1970 s,it has been leading the rural industrialization and "bottom-up" urbanization in the process of reform and opening up.Has there been an endogenous social force that triggers such changes in Shunde’s local society? This thesisattempts to answer the question by investigating the history of Shunde’s local society from the perspective of the formation of collective space in the local society.This thesis analyzes several key elements in the changes to Shunde’s natural and social environments: local social elements such as water conservancy facilities like dikes,clans,markets and religion-based temples in villages;institutional elements in imperial and modern China including Lijia and Baojia systems in Ming and Qing Dynasties,local autonomy in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,the rural collectivization after the founding of the PRC,and the promotion of socialist market economy after the reform and opening up;economic elements such as dyke-fishpond agriculture and rural handicraft industry in Ming and Qing Dynasties,proto-industrialization,and industrialization in modern times and the era of globalization.From the perspective of these key elements at the level of the local society and state,this thesissummarizes the collective space of Shunde’s rural society for water conservancy,markets,belief,industries,the mechanism to accumulate and concentrate power(dominance)and resources(capital)therein,local custom,the regional characteristics of local culture and the supply mechanism of rural public goods,and on the basis of that,further attempts to construct an analytical framework for social space,namely the interaction between local society and national politics with the collective space as the core.This analytical framework is used to review the gains and losses resulted from the spatial behaviors of Shunde(government and rural area)in the context of capital globalization.The thesis consists of nine chapters:Chapter Ⅰ analyzes the research background,proposes the research topic,determines the research subjects and scope,and defines the key concepts,the research methods used and the framework of the thesis.Chapter Ⅱ reviews the basic theories of social space,the main paradigms of research on Chinese rural society and related research results,then puts forward the theoretical analytical framework for the collective space of the local society,the mechanism to accumulate and concentrate power and resources in the space,and incorporates them into the research areas of urbanization and globalization.Chapter Ⅲ focuses on the historical analysis of the natural environmental changes in Shunde.Centering on the collective action mechanism of public water conservancy facilities such as dikes,floodgates and tidal land enclosure,it summarizes the history of the construction of water conservancy facilities from Ming Dynasty to the founding of the PRC:from simple enclosure around villages,water retaining dykes protecting the farmland,enclosed embankment,integrated water conservancy facilities(including cross-village dykes,floodgates and drainage drainage),to regional dykes.This Chapter also analyzes the profound impact of the conflicts of interest and collaboration among different subjects in the collective space on the formation of villages during the development of water conservancy facilities inside the rural community.The interaction between mankind and nature facilitates the formation of water conservancy communities and counteracts the evolution of social space of Shunde(from the inaccurate natural territorial boundary to the defined boundary of property rights).The establishment of the mechanism to accumulate and concentrate power and resources in the collective space of water conservancy represents the formation of public water conservancy facilities and rules of water conservancy communities.Chapter Ⅳ and V analyze the historical characteristics of folk beliefs in local societies based on the evolution of folk beliefs in the Pearl River Delta region and Shunde.The focuses of the analysis include featured internal and external natural environment in rural societies reflected by the geographical distribution of different gods;mutual interactions of national ritual system and clan organizations with folk beliefs based on the influence of community system and clan system on village temple;conclusion of the rich variety and complexity of social spaces in Shunde through research into village cluster,village temple,different types of ritual circle and folk belief circle.By creating gods and carrying out ritual ceremonies,folk beliefs have realized centralization of rural social power and accumulation of resources,playing an important role in the integration of different communities within the region,dealing with floods and bandits,accelerating the formation of cluster communities and village alliances,influencing the evolution of Xu Shi(Bazaar)and the formation of regional spirit.In traditional rural society,the existence of God means the establishment of Weber’s charisma,which is a metaphor for the authority over the construction of social order and social space in rural areas.As the most prominent features of the local society in Shunde,folk beliefs serve as the link of all social activities.Chapter Ⅵ analyzes factors contributing to the transformation between Xu(Bazaar)and Shi(Market)with focus on the historical evolution of Shi and periodic Xu in rural areas.Through comprehensive analysis of Xu Shi management mechanism in different historical periods,the relationship of Xu Shi with the water network,clan and village temple,and Xu Shi’s change of nature accelerated by proto-industrialization and modern industrialization,the historical evolution of market and trade space of Xu Shi in rural areas were summarized.The emergence of market area of Xu Shi in rural areas in Shunde accelerated the transition from interpersonal social interactions to regional economic activities among villages in rural areas.The emergence of collective space in Xu Shi contributed to the transition from providing daily life services to promoting regional labor division in rural areas.The transition from Xu to Shi in rural areas in Shunde in the Ming and Qing Dynasty followed the historical genealogy from morning and evening market,daytime Xu – periodic Xu and fixed Shi – specialized Xu and specialized Shi-commercial Shi and periodic Xu,which,as a matter of fact,has reflected the change of dominant position of consumption and production in local social and economic activities in rural areas.By probing into the classification,evolution,competition and conflict of Xu Shi in rural areas in Shunde,this thesis analyzes the change of centralization and accumulation of power and resources in the evolution of Xu Shi in rural areas,and concludes that the continuous upgrading of Xu Shi in rural areas are mutually correlated with the weakening feudal nature in Xu Shi.The centralized power mechanism is an indispensable condition for the evolution from specialized Xu Shi to modern cities and towns,and together with the resulting centralization of Xu Shi resources,they dominated the urbanization process of Xu Shi in Shunde.Chapter Ⅶ centers on the impact of key systems on local societies in rural areas and how local societies in rural areas respond and construct collective spaces in different historical periods.i.e.,the study of centralization and accumulation of the power and resources of social collective spaces in rural areas against the backdrop and in the presence of the nation.It is concluded that(1)Lijia System of the Ming Dynasty focused on the management of households in the yellow census register,creating the identity of rural clusters;Tujia System in the Qing Dynasty focused on land management,accelerating the formation and maturity of internal social management mechanism in rural society.(2)Through the study of garrison,patrol division,Baojia,village convenance,conventions and other national defense system or security control institutions in local regions,and village self-defense system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the formation of regional society across villages is explored.(3)For the first time in history,local autonomy from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China has led the rural society from Weber’s Substantive Rationality or Value Rationality to Formal Rationality or Instrumental Rationality,and the rural society is transformed from selfautonomy driven by local custom to institutionalization.(4)After the founding of the PRC,the social space in Shunde experienced institutional reform along with land reform,agricultural cooperation and other socialist transformations,the people’s commune system,constant policy change after the reform and opening up.The land reform ended the feudal land ownership,and established quasi-administrative body of district and village under county administration through peasants’ union and district congress,and the rural society was institutionalized for the first time.The agricultural cooperation period witnessed collective production and the implementation of socialist public ownership for the first time in rural area by senior communities.The people’s commune period saw the transition of accounting unit from the people’s communes,production brigade to production team,and the internal organization unit in regional society in rural areas was ultimately replaced by the production team and production organization.Undergoing a brief period of autonomy after reform and opening up,the rural areas were included into the administrative system through re-collectivization.With the establishment of rural joint-stock cooperative and village committee at managerial level,rural areas were transformed through re-collectivization into economy-oriented autonomous organization,and the rural society once again faced reorganization.The institutionalized spatial division was a rigid restriction and reorganization of social space in rural areas.However,the autonomy of other regions again played a key role after the separation of government and society in the rural society,such as the tide of village temple renovation in the 1990’s,the establishment of rural economic cooperation organizations,reinforced clan activities,etc.,and social space once again gradually gained autonomy.Chapter Ⅷ focuses on agricultural commercialization,handicraft and protoindustrialization,commune and brigade enterprises and township enterprises,and village industrialization of Shunde promoted by its dike-pond agriculture,and concludes that collective spaces of Shunde’s local society promoted inductive and compulsory institution evolutions during its agricultural commercialization,proto-industrialization and industrialization,and eventually completed its industrialization process.Main contents include: 1.The relation between emergence of dike-pond agriculture in Shunde and changes of natural environment(more flood damages)and construction of water conservancy facilities in response to flood threat;thisplus the drive of international silk trade starting from the middle Ming Dynasty,ultimately promoted the proto-industrialization of Shunde’s rural handicraft industry;2.The introduction of machine reeling industry in the late Qing Dynasty triggered off the revolution of agricultural production mode and conflicts in rural society,changed many factors of the local community,and accelerated the agricultural industrialization,the professionalization of rural markets,and the emergence of industrial and commercial capital,eventually turning Shunde from proto-industrialization to modern industrialization;3.After the founding of the PRC and the implementation of the socialist public ownership,the original national industry and handicraft industry were incorporated into the national industrial system and the agricultural production system of the people’s commune.Shunde’s dike-pond economic crop system provided a favorable socio-economic environment that is different from cereal-based regions for the development of commune and brigade enterprises of the people’s commune,which laid solid foundation for rapid development of township enterprises of Shunde after the reform and opening up;4.In 1992,the government of Shunde promoted property rights reform and urban and rural integration strategy,creating new opportunities for the development of township enterprises,yet resulting in low industry level and extensive utilization of land.The rural collective organizations of Shunde actively invested in township enterprises at the initial stage of reform,laying foundation of village industrialization;after the reform of property right mechanism,they gradually evolved into a collective asset management platform,which devitalized the economy of village collectives.In the process of reform and opening up,the rural society involved in the process of industrialization split into two parts: some became the winners of the reform,while others loses.Essentially,this was a difference between the re-collectivization processes of the collective organization.The differences in the industrialization of different villages of Shunde after the reform and opening up prove the tremendous role of collective organizations in the process of industrialization,namely,strong collective organizations ensure more successful industrialization;weak villages can only stuck with agricultural production.In a way,differences in the power of collective spaces and the accumulation and centralization of resources are decisive to the success of village industrialization and corresponding development paths.Chapter Ⅸ,by summarizing the above chapters and further elaborating the analysis framework of local society’s collective spaces,concludes the merits and demeritsof Shunde’s space policy after the reform and opening up,and puts forward suggestion for the development of rural social spaces. |
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