Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919–1949

by Yung-chen Chiang

• ISBN13: 9780521027243
• ISBN10: 0521027241
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this book Yung-chen Chiang tells the story of the origins, hopes, visions and achievements of the social sciences movement in China during the first half of the twentieth century. He focuses on the efforts of social scientists at three institutions - the Yanjing Sociology Department, Nankai Institute of Economics, and Chen Hansheng's Marxist agrarian research enterprise - to relate their disciplines to the needs of Chinese society. As all three groups received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, their stories offer a unique window on to Sino-American interactions, revealing how the social sciences became a lingua franca of the cultural frontier. Drawing on an impressive variety of archival materials used here for the first time, this study corrects and enriches current scholarship, presenting both a more detailed and panoramic view. Chiang's analysis engages the complex and broader issues of the transfer, indigenization and international patronage of social science disciplines.

Table of Contents

Ackowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The Yanjing sociology department: the social service phase, 1919-1925

3. The Yanjing Sociology Department: from social service to social engineering, 1925-1945

4. The Nankai Institute of Economics: the germinating stage, 1927-1931

5. The Nankai Institute of Economics: academic entrepreneurship and social engineering, 1931-1947

6. Marxism, revolution and the study of Chinese society

7. Genesis of a Marxist social science enterprise in the early 1930s

8. The social sciences, agrarian China and the advocacy of revolution

9. The Rockefeller foundation and Chinese academic enterprise

10. Conclusion: the Legacy

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.