Qualitative Localization Of Sociology Research

At present, the papers and publications relating to "qualitative research" are in large number in China; however, most of them put too much emphasis on the significance of its methods, consequently "qualitative research" is equivalent to "the research and application of qualitative methods ". In other words, they lacked the theoretical view and research ideas close to society-history. In order to solve this problem and achieve a breakthrough in the research path, this article attempts to construct qualitative sociology, complete the narrative content of the localization of qualitative sociology, and achieve the goals of clarifying the theoretical dimension and developing the core concepts, etc. To do these the article combed the discourse context and historical differences of qualitative study as starting point, then traced the historical tradition of sociology, sought support from Chinese tradition of social culture, and selected a certain dimension of qualitative sociological theory.The full text is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction, which introduced the research background and significance of qualitative sociology, summarized a series of research works of qualitative sociology at home and abroad, demonstrated the development context of localization of the qualitative sociology. Additionally, it described the research tasks of qualitative sociology and the challenges it is facing, and briefly pointed out that the literature combing, comparative analysis, and case review can be used as research methods.The second chapter reviewed the birth process of Phenomenological sociology by discussing about the Ethnomethodology, showing the ideological origin of qualitative sociology from multi-dimension and multi-perspective. On one hand, the chapter reviewed the Ethnomethodology produced by Garfinkel, introduced social action theory—which was often neglected in the past, and reflectively understood the core concepts of Ethnomethodology, so that to return to the core issues of sociology. On the other hand, basing on the description of Schutz, the historical association of phenomenological sociology and interpretative sociology was further clarified, and the theoretical characteristics of the hermeneutic tradition was also reflected in the overall framework and the path of qualitative sociology. Hence, phenomenological sociology was made to contribute thinking direction to the theory construction of qualitative sociology at the methodological level.The third chapter established a relatively complete lineage of qualitative sociological concepts. First of all, on the basis of defining disciplinary concepts of qualitative sociology, it’s content was divided into three conceptual types, which are the concepts with reflexive characteristics, concepts in the qualitative research view, and concepts constructed by interaction with sociology. Then on the basis of the three types of concept systems, a series of analytical concepts, such as qualitative society, social structure flow, aggregation-discrete theory and qualitative view of time and space come out. Next, examining and interpreting qualitative sociology from the intersubjectivity perspective of knowledge producing, the chapter further clarified the research history of how the theory was externalized, and clearly understood the intersubjectivity of knowledge reproduction. At the same time, it completed the process of reflecting qualitative sociological research from the perspective of knowledge reproduction.The fourth chapter generally discussed the importance of the concept of society in qualitative sociological research system, indicating that it has become a critical thinking node for qualitative sociological research system. Firstly, the starting point of qualitative sociological research is to understand and accurately interpret the concept of society of different researchers, then by reviewing classic sociological works summarize types of concept of society, and associate society with daily life and social facts. Secondly, combining with qualitative thinking, sort out the lineage of the concept of society, and try to discover the thinking logic behind it by using new narrative perspective, getting rid of the misunderstanding of concepts of society and it’s concept deviation. Thirdly, based upon the four core characteristics of the concept of society (uncertainty, flowing, diffusing and informativity), the chapter proposed an interpreting perspective of qualitative sociology. Finally, depending on four interactive relationships such as classic works reviewing-concept innovating, world of daily life-the grass-root narrative, and cultural discourse-society integration, the paper explored the "society" landscape in the view of qualitative culture and reflected the concept of society.The fifth chapter rethought and re-organized the localization process of qualitative sociology from a diachronic perspective, focusing on localization practices of qualitative sociology. First, by analyzing the inside and outside motivations of qualitative sociology localization, the chapter illustrated the impact of cultural factors to the study of sociology, and pointed out the internal development needs of sociological knowledge system. Second, it focused on the early practice of the localization of qualitative sociology, including the practice experience of Wu Wenzao on one hand, and the reflective experience of Fei Xiaotong on the other hand, aiming at clarifying the critical period of the localization of qualitative sociology. Third, it recognized the inspirations by qualitative sociological localization, responding to the blind spot in the quantitative research, extending and expanding the research paradigm of understanding sociology.The final part is the conclusion. This section covered the local value of qualitative sociology, arguing that qualitative sociological research should display the unique paradigm and core concepts of Chinese traditions and culture. Qualitative sociological research would be more vigorous only by rooting in the local context.