社会转型:发展社会学的新议题

New Issues in the Field of the Sociology of Development

在传统的发展社会学中,学术传统主要有两个,一个是以发达国家的现代化为研究对象的现代化理论,一个是以拉丁美洲、非洲和东亚模式为研究对象的发展理论。这两个学术传统构成了发展社会学的主要论题,同时也限制了发展社会学的视野。本文认为,中国、前苏联、东欧等社会主义国家的转型过程为发展社会学提出了一系列新的议题,包括如何看待不同国家和地区的发展道路,如何看待发展和转型过程中国家与社会的关系,如何看待发展过程中社会不平等的问题等。这些议题扩展着发展社会学的视野,也为建构新的发展社会学理论提供了可能。在此基础上,作者提出发展社会学应当面对转型国家的社会转型实践过程,形成现代化理论、发展理论、转型理论三足鼎立的发展理论新格局。

Two major schools have dominated the sociology of development： the modernization school, which focuses on the modernization of Western countries since the early modern period, and the development school, which concentrates on social development in developing countries （especially Latin America, Africa, and some countries and regions in East Asia） since the 1960s. This paper proposes that the transformation taking place in such socialist or ex-socialist countries as China, the former Soviet Union and the East European countries have presented a series of issues that may radically alter and expand the sociological horizon. In addition to the afore- said modernization theory and developmental theory, a third theory, i.e., that of transformation, is in order.