China Social Science Review

No.1, 2021

 

Core Concept Construction in Field Politics: Path, Features and Contribution

(Abstract)

 

Xu Yong

 

Field politics is a field studybased political science research path that has raised the awareness of the political field school after a prolonged period of research. Its hallmark is the construction of a number of original core concepts. The path of concept construction is pursued in a sequence of levels, from the individual to the household, to the village, and thence to the nation. This concept construction is original, relative, theoretical, extensible and subject to debate. Field politics’ special contribution to the study of political science in China is the construction of core concepts that include the individual and the household, relationships and history in national level research and the introduction of empirical methodology into political studies. Additional efforts are: the organic association of concepts developed in field study with political theory; the organic combination of the empiricism and universality of the concepts; in-depth development and extended research on the concepts; and improvement of the conceptual system.