Modernization and social problems in Mainland China: A conflict-labeling perspective

In: Issues & studies: a social science quarterly on China, Taiwan, and East Asian affairs, Band 22, Heft 1, S. 35-53

Abstract

The study shows that social problems in China are defined and labelled by a dominant group that holds supreme authority, and that definitions of social problems are changed whenever the authority changes hands or whenever the authority changes its interest or point of view. It is argued that although China's search for modernization did create a condition conducive for the emergency of social problems, it was the authority and the powerful group which labelled an individual as "deviant" and an issue as "problematic". (DÜI-Sen)