The Cultural Sociology of China: Trajectory and Dynamics of a Burgeoning Field

Abstract

In this essay, we review the burgeoning field of the cultural sociology of China. We first describe the trajectory and features of the development of the cultural sociology of China. We argue that the evolution of this scholarship has involved three intertwined social, political, and intellectual processes across national boundaries: (1) the production, diffusion, reception, and reproduction of modern social scientific paradigms from the West, especially the USA, to China; (2) the tensions between China studies as “area studies” in western academia and sociology as a discipline; (3) the entangled relations between politics and knowledge in both China and the West. Then we review existing cultural sociological studies of various topics in three broad categories: economy, politics, and civil society. We end our essay with a discussion of promising topics and agenda for future research and potential challenges.

Globalizing the sociology of the arts and culture: East Asian perspectives

“…Social scientists should pay more attention to the rise of the arts sector in this region. The burgeoning interest in cultural sociology in East Asian societies (Tsang and Lamont 2018;Xu et al 2019;Ku et al 2022) may pave the way for the development of the sociology of the arts, and culture in and of East Asia.…”

China and the Internationalisation of the Sociology of Contemporary Work and Employment

“…The influence of politics on the transnational production of knowledge remains a significant concern. Xu et al’s (2019) observations of the political constraints in the development of the cultural sociology of China are equally pertinent to our discussion here:Chinese state’s censorship of published studies and possible research topics . .…”

“…It attempts to prevent English-language articles from being read in China – for example, blocking some articles in flagship journals like China Quarterly – and, in a pre-emptive practice, to fund existing English-language journals or even create new ones to screen out unwanted topics. (Xu et al, 2019: 403)…”