Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2020

 

Cultural Heritage from the Perspective of Sociology: An Analytical Framework Oriented Towards the Practice-Cognition Schema

(Abstract)

 

Hu Anning

 

Cultural heritage is related to national identity and international positioning, but it has long received insufficient attention from sociology in comparison with cultural change. It can be analyzed from three dimensions: institutionalized culture, schema culture, and individual culture. The three correspond to different definitions of cultural ontology: layers of cultural heritage, the degree of difficulty in cultural heritage, and the objects of cultural heritage. There are two means of cultural inheritance: self-inheritance and systemic inheritance, and different theoretical presuppositions regarding the capacity for cultural inheritance, the positioning of actors’ initiative, and the logic of sociological “mechanism analysis.” The experiential process of cultural heritage is not homogeneous; there are variations in sub-groups, fields of influence, and social effects. Cultural heritage can be empirically measured in many ways on the basis of the potential and structural characteristics of schemas. The analytical framework of cultural heritage based on practice-cognition schema has enriched and expanded existing research on cultural sociology. It also provides important thought-provoking material for current cultural promotion.