Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 12, 2022

Chinese Experience and Economic Sociology with Chinese Characteristics: Iconic Concepts and Key Issues

(Abstract)

Yang Dian and Xiang Jinglin

Throughout the development of Chinese economic sociology over the past forty-plus years, Chinese sociologists have been rooted in China’s experience, learned from Western theories but refused to copy them, and have creatively constructed a series of iconic concepts such as “another invisible hand,” “guanxi sociology,” “property rights as a relational concept,” “the re-formation of the working class,” “the trinity of urbanization” and “the tournament system.” These have promoted the construction of economic sociology with Chinese characteristics at the macro, meso, and micro levels, demonstrating the supplementation, promotion or transcendence of Western economic sociology by Chinese sociologists. Reviewing the iconic concepts and key issues of Chinese economic sociology, we find that the three “meta-institutions” of Chinese society, the state, family and guanxi, extensively influence and shape economic behavior, economic operations, economic models and other areas of society. The three meta-institutions are the key variables that distinguish Chinese society from Western society, and furnish the underlying logic and empirical foundation of Chinese modernization and sociology with Chinese characteristics.