Organization ＆ Community StudiesDepartment of Organization ＆ Community Study, a key research department in both the Institute of Sociology and CASS, specializes in studying the intrinsic mechanisms and logic of the structural transformation of the Chinese society from the perspectives of organizational and community development. The research from the perspective of organizational development and institutional change emphasizes transformation of the vertical social structure. The research from the perspective of community development stresses transformation of the horizontal social structure. It focuses on the fundamental forces, direction, content, form and law of the transformation, and on the exploration of the significant socio-economic factors and their functions that considerably affect the structural transformation during the reform era. The research is based on solid social practice and local experiences, and thus with the utilization of extensive empirical materials, it attempts to develop systematic theories and methods for the scientific understanding of Chinese society and to propose policy-oriented recommendations on significant practical issues.
Features of the research work of the Section: 1. Pay special attention to describing and analyzing the dynamic process of the organizational and institutional transformations and the administration, adjustment and development of the community during the reform era. It strives to describe in full and accurate terms the facts and processes of the transformation, so that, based on the empirical research, theoretical analysis and methods can gradually take shape. 2. Focus on the emergence and growth of the new structural factors rise during the transformation, and explore the restructuring issues of the social structure resulting from the emergent new factors. 3. Study the significant issues reflecting the structural transformation of social organization (among those studied are “units”, mass organizations, “super-villages”, just mechanism and security organizations, poverty transmit organizations, etc.), observe the actual process of the structural transformation and try to identify its patterns from various angles. 4. Regard organization and institution as the basic components of the community and the focal issue of research, delineate the structural transformation of the concrete community, and apply the method of systematic analysis to examine the interaction and interdependence of various structural factors. 5. According to the nature and requirements of a given research topic, either utilize social statistics for quantitative research or case study for qualitative research.
Department Members:
Deputy
Members: Shi Yuntong(female), XIANG Jinglin , YU Jia(female)，LIU Yiran（female）