Research Of Songjiang Family Farm System In View Of Structuration Theory

Songjiang family farm system is an invocation of agricultural management system based on the basic rural operation system. It is organized by district government, town government and village collective. In Songjiang Family farm system, all land is circulated within the administrative village and becomes concentrated, then is subcontracted to part of the farm families within management ability, which leads to moderate management.It is found in the survey that this new type of agriculture management system is not formed once, while it is adjusted frequently in a dynamic process. However, no matter how it changes, it is always regarded as family farm system by stakeholders and the outside world. On the premise of the existing text description’s invariability, the relationship of relevant subjects, the practical rules and resources will continue to change, which means that this system can’t be understood as game equilibrium among the subjects or social contact through equal consultation. In reality, the system is not a static structure, but a process of structure reproduction, which is not circulation, but creation. In this paper, the author tries to understand the Songjiang farm family system as a kind of structuring process based on structuration theory. In this view, this paper offers a sociological explanation on Songjiang family farm system, and also tries to offer an explanation on localization connotation of system in China.This paper indicates that in the dialectical control relationship of rules and resources decided externally, the family farm households, land outflow households and village collective play active roles. They adapt to and amend the rules, utilize and regenerate the resources. Through the constant reproduction of rules and resources, the new groundbreaking system maintains its existence and avoids dying young.First, the local government makes the rules including the land circulation, family farm access and management. It also provides resources including works and security for land outflow households, provides resources including agricultural service and subsidy for family farm households. The rules and resources are practiced through the village collective, which forms the structure of Songjing family farm. The family farm households, land outflow households, village collective are the actors in the structure, who have active consciousness and ability.Second, the actors are constrained by the structure and play an active role in the structure. During the process of frequent interaction, the structure reproduces. For the family farm households, they are restricted by space, time, cost and instable management right, and they take the strategic actions to break the limit of space and time, to cost savings, to stabilize the management right, in order to realize profit goal. As a result the new management rules and resources are reproduced. For the land outflow households, they are out of agriculture management restricted by the legality and the factors. But they challenge the rules constantly to share the interests of family farm. As a result, the mechanism of actions adjusted by economic factors is reproduced, and the family farm access rule becomes more strict. For the village collective, its autonomy to manage the village is restricted, but its basic practical experience contains the factors of structure reproduction, which prompts the structure’s adjustment along with the changes in practice.Then, during the constant reproduction, the structure of Songjiang family farm becomes stable, which means that it has been structured:stability of management rules and management subjects; the realization of actors’ ontological security; the establishment of coordinated relationship among the actors, which marks the formation of Songjiang family farm system. While this system is just in steady state temporarily, will interact with the actors in practice and realize new reproduction, which presents dynamic change.Finally, the perspective of structuring also explains the plight of system transplantation or promotion. As Songjiang family farm system is a kind of continuous structuring process. In the strict sense, any complex process can’t be transplanted or copied. Transplantation must be the creation of the structure and will change the original structure, which will cause the system lose its basic prescriptions. While it means the failure of transplantation or the formation of a new system.