Research On The Phenomenon Of Social Differentiation In The Process Of China's Modernization

Social differentiation is a concept used to describe the process of continuous decomposition and reorganization of social structure.It is a phenomenon of increasing social classification and social differences in the process of social development.From The Times of ignorance and barbarism to the present,the social differentiation of human society happens continuously accompanied by the development and progress of human civilization.Especially when human civilization enters modern society,the social differentiation is particularly acute and prominent because of industrialization,urbanization,informatization and other “modern variables”.Since the middle of the 19 th century,when China started the process of modernization,how to treat and govern social differentiation has always been a main issue of Chinese modernization.Before the founding of the People's Republic of China,the differentiation of social structure was freely,unfortunately,it made a turbulence and uncontrollable society.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,the government took a series of strict measures to restrain social differentiation.As a result,a low differentiated society based on the planned economy was set up.At the beginning,the low differentiated society made a great contribution to the productivity growth and social solidarity of China.But due to a series of inherent defects of this society,it did not achieve the mission of promoting modernization,and eventually caused a social catastrophe named “the Great Cultural Revolution”.The above facts prove that we can't allow social differentiation without any control,nor can it ignore the laws of historical development and severely suppress social differentiation in the process of Chinese modernization.After the reform and opening-up,China has finally found a successful modernizing mode which includes both well-balanced social differentiation and social progress.In this mode,the social differentiation takes the market-oriented reform as the original power and starts from the low differentiated society which is based on planned economic system.After systematic differentiation,occupational differentiation,income differentiation and class differentiation,a society characterized by “high differentiation” is gradually born.In general,the process of Chinese social differentiation is characterized by nonantagonistic,asymptotic,unbalanced and controllable features,which are basically in line with China's national conditions and the law of modernization.With the development of society,social differentiation also showed a series of new trends which are important to the development of social differentiation in contemporary China,including the increasingly diversified social differentiation dimensions,increasing number of “cross-border” phenomenon,a growing trend of “liquidity” and an emerging trend of the internet social differentiation.The social differentiation in contemporary China has a series of the significance to promoting historical progress,which should be the same in all modern societies.First of all,it is conducive to the development of productive forces,because it creates a positive social environment,a balanced social structure and a series of modern departments and subjects.Secondly,it creates a series of conditions conducive to social integration,including enhancing the dependence and complementarity between social groups,conserving the common values of rationality,openness and inclusiveness,creating inter-group links and weakening interclass conflicts.Last,it promotes the free development of human beings by activating the freedom of will,expanding the space of free choices and embodying the freedom of personality.It should also be noted that only when social differentiation is controlled within a reasonable range can it play a positive role in promoting historical progress.If social differentiation deviates greatly from its normal and reasonable state,it will cause a series of social risks and hinder social progress.Domestic and overseas experience and lessons reveal that the main social risks of social differentiation are in the following three aspects.First,social differentiation may lead to macro-structural imbalance including the imbalance of system structure,the imbalance of occupational structure,social polarization and social fragmentation.Secondly,some abnormal social groups such as vulnerable groups,marginal groups and anti-social groups may appear in the process of group differentiation.Thirdly,social differentiation has a series of potential negative effects on social mentality such as the weakening basis of traditional social trust,the social apathy and the social anxiety.Some of these above risks have already emerged in contemporary Chinese society,while others have not yet emerged.However,all of them cannot be ignored,because once the risks emerge,the governance costs will be huge.In the process of China's modernization,it is necessary to change the social integration mode in the era of planned economy and reconstruct a new social order compatible with highly differentiated society in order to fully activate the historical progressive role of social differentiation and reasonably control its potential risks.First of all,in a highly differentiated society,the social order should be maintained by multiple subjects who have their own action boundaries and limits.These subjects include the modern state,social organizations and modern humans,etc.Secondly,a series of conditions conducive to social integration should be fully explored and utilized to build social order in a highly differentiated society.These conditions include the developed productivity,the new "common factors" such as common interests,common risks,common goals and common values and some important social ties such as functional interdependence,social mobility and intergroup communication.Finally,the normal social differentiation that contributes to social progress and social integration should follow the following principles: coordinated development of social differentiation and integration,rationality,proportional distribution of costs and benefits,controllability,bottom line principle,principle of asymptotic property,full absorption principle.The conclusion part summarizes and reflects on this research,draws some basic research conclusions,and explores some future research directions.