从“国家与社会”到“制度与生活”:中国社会变迁研究的视角转换

From "State and Society" to "Institutions and Life" :the Changing Perspective of Research on Social Changes in China

"国家与社会"是近年来国内外学界研究中国社会变迁的主导性视角,但该视角在中国的运用更多是规范层面的,难以解释中国社会变迁的复杂机制。"制度与生活"可作为替代性视角。"制度"指以国家名义制定并支撑国家的各个层级和部门代理人行使其职能的正式制度;"生活"指社会人的日常活动,既包括各种权宜性生产的利益、权力和权利诉求及生活策略和技术,又指涉相对例行化的民情和习惯法。制度与生活视角的建构和运用,旨在通过对制度实践中正式制度代理人与生活主体互动的复杂机制的洞察,一方面分析我国正式制度变迁的实际逻辑和方向,另一方面找寻民情变动的机理,以期把握我国现代国家建设的总体性脉络。

'State and society ' has been the dominant perspective of research on social change in China in recent years among both domestic and overseas academics,but as used in China,this perspective is mostly at the normative level;it has difficulty in explaining the complex mechanisms of social change in China. 'Institutions and life' could offer a substitute perspective. 'Institutions 'refers to the formal institutions set up in the name of the state and covers the functions carried out by the agents of the state at all levels and in all departments,while 'life' refers to the daily activities of social man,including claims of all kinds on interests,powers and rights and the life strategies and techniques derived from rights and interests.At the same time,it involvesrelatively routinized popular sentiment and customary law.The construction and application of the 'institutions and life'perspective aims to observe the complex mechanisms of the interplay between formal agents of the state in their institutional practice and people as independent actors in their lives,so as to analyze the actual logic and direction of the changes in China' s formal institutions and look for the mechanisms behind changes in popular sentiment,with a view to grasping the overall themes of modern Chinese nation-building.