On December 15, 2023, School of Public Administration invited researcher Wang Chunguang, Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to give a lecture on the theme of “County Modernization and Localism”. The lecture was presided over by Professor Huang Yan.
Wang Chunguang, believes that since the reform and opening up, county modernization is the focus and difficulty of China's modernization. To this end, based on a survey of the top ten county-level cities -- Taicang City in Jiangsu Province and Jinjiang City in Fujian Province for nearly 30 years, researcher Wang Chunguang combined the concept of locality in sociology and anthropology to explain county modernization from a local perspective.
Researcher Wang Chunguang demonstrated the four dimensions of locality, including the potential and position of county geographic spatial location, the dynamic and energy of social mobility and social organization characteristics, the accumulation and support of lifestyle and cultural spiritual characteristics, and the incentive of government governance characteristics. The four dimensions not only have their own adaptation to county modernization, but also mutually adapt and shape each other, further improving the level of local adaptation modernization.
Finally, researcher Wang Chunguang pointed out that the social and cultural subjectivity nourished by the locality has become the leading force to promote the development and change of county modernization. Looking for the possibility of cultivating social and cultural subjectivity from the locality is an important experience for more counties in China to promote modernization.
Wang Chunguang's wonderful lecture on county modernization and localism won unanimous praise from the teachers and students at the scene. He also made in-depth discussions and exchanges with the teachers and students on the path and form of county modernization and the influencing factors.
