改革开放四十年的社会巨变和中国社会学的当代使命--《学习与探索》专访中国社会科学院学部委员李培林先生

The Great Change in the Past 40 Years of Reform and Opening up and the Contemporary Mission of Chinese Sociology——Study & Exploration Interviewed Mr. LI Peilin,the Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

从社会学的角度来看,中国改革开放四十年的巨变不仅仅是经济领域的快速增长,更是社会结构的变化和日常生活的变迁。改革开放以来,社会主义市场经济体制的建立为社会转型提供了强大的动力,社会结构发生了根本性变化,"社会转型"成为中国社会学描述和解释改革开放以来社会巨变的核心概念。在一定程度上可以说"社会转型"是除市场之外"另一只看不见的手",在中国的社会结构中,"社会网"能够成为资源分配的一项重要机制,在一些情况下,其效率甚至高于市场和政府。因此,理解了"社会转型"这一重要概念,就能够对中国日常生活变迁中诸如消费转型、食品安全、生态环境等许多问题有更深入的理解。新时期的社会发展具有显著的特征,改革开放至今与前30年相比,很多方面已经发生了根本性变化,这些根本性变化可以概括为"四大转折",包括城镇化发展的转折,就业和劳动力供求关系的转折,收入分配和职业结构的转折,老龄化过程的转折。为了应对新趋势、新挑战,我们的战略选择和政策应对也应随之调整。在这种改革浪潮下,中国社会学不应当局限于"社会问题学",要有理论上的思考和建树,要有社会规律、变迁规则的发现,要有自己完整的知识体系、学科体系、学术体系、教材体系、话语体系,学问要能够解释社会,有助于改造社会,唯有如此,才能够承担起中国社会学的当代使命。

From the sociological view,the great changes in China’s reform and open over the past 40 years are not only the rapid growth of the economic field,but also the changes in social structure and daily life.Since the reform and opening up,the establishment of the socialist market economic system has provided a great power for social transformation.The social structure has undergone fundamental changes.The“social transfor mation”has become the core conception of describing and explaining the great social changes since the reform and opening up in China.To some extent,“social transformation”is“another invisible hand”besides the market by way of analogy.In China’s social structure,“Social Net”can allocate resources as an important mechanism,in some cases,its efficiency is even higher than that of the market and the government.There fore,understanding the important concept of“social transformation”will help us to have a more in-depth un derstanding of the changes in China’s daily life,such as consumption transformation,food security,ecological environment and many other issues.The social development in the new period has remarkable characteristics.Compared with the previous 30 years since the reform and opening up,many fundamental changes have taken place in many aspects.These fundamental changes can be summarized as“four major turning points”,inclu ding the turning point of urbanization development,the turning point of the relationship between employment and labor supply and demand,the turning point of income distribution and occupational structure.The turning point of the aging process.In response to new trends and new challenges,our strategic choices and policy re sponses should also be adjusted accordingly.Under such a trend of reform,Chinese sociology should not be re stricted to“social issues”,but should have theoretical thinking and achievements,formation of the laws and rules of social and a complete discipline system,academic system,textbook system and discourse system of its own.Knowledge should be able to explain society and help transform society.Only in this way can we assume the contemporary mission of Chinese sociology.