Interaction,Identity,Transition:The Sign Study Of Contemporary Chinese Sociology (2000-2019)

Signs are an important topic in the field of Chinese sociology.Since the restoration and reconstruction of disciplines,the research related to signs has run through the development of domestic sociology.As an important theoretical ideological trend in Western social sciences,semiotics has had an important impact on domestic social sciences,especially sociology.The interdisciplinary communication between semiotics and sociology is increasingly deeper.This thesis focuses on the main development processes and stages that contemporary Chinese sociology has experienced when conducting sign research,and then analyzes the research ideas and basic knowledge characteristics of each stage;on this basis,this thesis summarizes the overall logic and trends of Chinese sociology research,as well as the connection and differences between such research and Western semiotics.In the specific research path,this article summarizes the main development process of domestic sociological sign research by combing the articles about signs in mainstream sociological journals from 2000 to 2019 and comparing them with the articles in mainstream semiotic journals to analyze the development trends and basic characteristics of each stage.There are three main stages in the discussion of signs in contemporary Chinese sociology: 1.The stage of signs and “social interaction”,this type of research focuses on the interaction methods and mechanisms in the network society facilitated by signs,and explores these characters,codes,etc.Compared with the face-to-face interaction,the way people interact in the platform constitutes the connection and difference.It focuses on the analysis of the media function of the sign and uses the sign as a tool as a whole.2.The stage of signs and “social identity”,this stage focuses on the formation of identity,the commonality between individuals and their identified groups,and the separation between groups.Its analysis has psychological implications.This stage regards signs as “labels” that people carried,introducing the important perspective of the relationship between people and signs.3.Sign and “social change” stage.At this stage,the sign is used as the point of penetration,and the social changes are studied by examining the signs of different periods.It has a strong historical analysis implication and introduces a new angle of the relationship between sign and history.The above-mentioned different stages of development reflect that the contemporary Chinese sociological community has experienced a change in the understanding of signs from “object” signs to “ontological” signs,and sociologists’ grasp of signs has gradually moved away from the anthropocentric methodology.This theis considers that this change process is on the one hand,produced as a result of society’s increasing notation and mediaization,and on the other hand,the methodological thinking of China’s sociological circles is gradually brought closer to Western semiotics.