Case studies towards the analysis of total social construction

Abstract

Case study is an irreplaceable sociological strategy for research on social construction. Different from either hypothesis tests or descriptive accounts of social life, case study aims to make a long chain of interpretations from a typical case to the construction of the whole society, by linkages of concrete people, conditions, and situations in a case with other related social, political, and cultural elements all the way through. In other words, the case is not only influenced by the policies made by central or local governments at different levels, but also located in grassroots customs and mores at the bottom. To find these multiple relations horizontally and vertically clustered in a case study, various methods of -graphy must be used, such as geography, cartography, demography, historiography, biography, autobiography, lexicography, and, finally, ethnography. At the same time, however, all these elements and their relations should be activated by eventalization having happened in daily life. Through the types of stimulation of abnormal processes or sublimation of normal rituals in eventalization, the complicated, correlative, and sustainable relationships among social elements are presented as many social mechanisms in different dimensions. On all accounts, the whole scene of society will be opened out as a solid structure by the various points (events), lines (linkages), and plane (mechanism) in three dimensions. As Max Weber said, ‘The causal relations in sociological research would be satisfied as a special explanatory demonstration’.

Returning life to society: Biography as a narrative of the whole

“…However, phenomenology can hardly tell us, in a particular era, what problems form the most common anxieties in the world of life, which mechanisms play a leading role in social construction, and what the most prominent characteristics are of the total society. (Qu, 2019a: 463)The biographical method cannot meet all the needs in the writing of either ethnography or historiography. Every community, family, or individual transcends its own “partial (limitation)” and merges with history and the “bigger world”, both on the vertical and the horizontal dimensions (Wang, 2016).…”

“…However, phenomenology can hardly tell us, in a particular era, what problems form the most common anxieties in the world of life, which mechanisms play a leading role in social construction, and what the most prominent characteristics are of the total society. (Qu, 2019a: 463)…”

“…As Qu Jingdong states, in addition to “points” and “lines”, there is the question of “planes”. If the story of an individual cannot implicate the “various mechanisms” and explore the “social connections” among them, it is inevitably detached from “a three-dimensional social structure” and cannot be said to “reflect the whole society” (Qu, 2019a: 466). In this sense, for any figure in a biography, the personal story, the genealogical method, and the social life constitute a tripartite complex.…”

“…Second, people live in changing interpersonal relationships and may be faced with contingencies such as opportunities or accidents; therefore, only by releasing such contingencies in analysis can we resume the true social living status; contingency is not an error in variable thinking, but a kind of social mechanism that plays an even more important role. (Qu, 2019a: 472)To better understand these issues, the following part of this article briefly reviews the history of the biographical method in sociology and anthropology in Europe and the United States. To correspond with the academic development of Lin Yueh-Hwa, the review roughly covers the first half of the 20th century, during which time the study of biography developed from germination to maturity.…”

“…Second, people live in changing interpersonal relationships and may be faced with contingencies such as opportunities or accidents; therefore, only by releasing such contingencies in analysis can we resume the true social living status; contingency is not an error in variable thinking, but a kind of social mechanism that plays an even more important role. (Qu, 2019a: 472)…”