Doctoral Workshop Ⅴ

Sociology Department, Tsinghua University

Resident, Social Organization and State：

some key issues in the current community governance

Presenter: Wang Haiyu, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

Discussant: Jin Jun, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology

Community is not only a unit of sociological study, but also a research tool and method. Community can be a lens, which uncovers the real practices and logics among individuals, organizations and state in the context of social governance. This presentation introduces four field studies (some unfinished) to gain a more comprehensive understanding of current community governance.

1. Oral Histories of Hutongs: evolution of urban planning in the heart of Beijing.

Abstract: Over a hundred of hutongs in Qianmen embody the history of ancient Beijing, where the history of local residents’ life replenishes relevant official documents. This paper centers on real experiences of individual locals during the evolution of urban planning and collects materials through existing literature, semi-structural interviews with the residents, and participatory observation based on research method of oral history. It aims to reveal the restriction that people have been received during their construction of living space and to show how people perform concrete strategies in practice. It also intends to analyze the current operating mechanism of “gentrification” in old communities.

2. Dependent Autonomy: subjective tendency and objective structure of community cadres in their daily decisions.

Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the different choices of external resources in four communities which have the similar “community field” but cooperate with different institutions such as enterprises, universities, NGOs and other social subjects. By examining the life experiences of four community cadres and the community fields of administrative pressure, human resources system, state funding, and state control, this study obtains the following conclusions. Firstly, community cadres can make relatively independent decisions based on life experiences in the routine work. Secondly, the logic of community cadres in day-to-day decisions show a combination of initiative and structural restrictions, which is described as “Dependent Autonomy” in current community governance.

3. Institutional Absorption, Party Embededness and Administrative Incubation: the genealogy of social organizations in China.（Unfinished, still need a cooperator）

4. Silent Social Engineering: the manufacturing of residential organizations. （Unfinished）

Language:

Chinese

Time and Site:

April 29th（Saturday）, 2017, 2.pm

Room 211, XiongZhixing Building, Tsinghua University

Contact the presenter for cooperation:

wanghy14@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn