Rationalization and Modernization of Urbanites: An Empirical Comparative Study on the Changes in Behavior and Concepts of Urban Residents

Author: Min Xueqin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: As pioneers in the transition from tradition to modernity, urban dwellers play a significant role in the changes in Chinese behavioral patterns and value systems. The book focuses on observing, discovering, analyzing, interpreting, and predicting urban dwellers as the core of the city, as well as the evolution of the role system they constitute. With the rationalization and modernization of individuals as the central concept, the theoretical framework is constructed based on the interactive relationship among individual transformation, rationalization, and modernization. Nanjing and Shanghai residents are selected as empirical research samples. The book employs a multi-stage sampling questionnaire survey combined with SPSS software for statistical analysis, conducting an empirical comparative study to delve into the trends, patterns, and driving forces of urban dwellers' rationalization and modernization. It also provides quantitative and qualitative analyses of the impact of personal ascriptive factors (such as gender and age), self-made factors (such as education and occupation), and sociocultural factors (such as urban and cultural contexts) on individual transformation, concluding that the combined effect of these factors leads to the growth of individual rationality and modernity.
The trends of modern urban transformation reflect the integration of rationalization and modernization in urban dwellers. Although Shanghai residents exhibit more rationality and modernity compared to Nanjing residents, and the rationalization and modernization processes in both cities are still far from complete, they clearly demonstrate a tendency to make rational choices in their behavior, lifestyle, and social environment, while also breaking free from traditional cultural constraints and embracing modern bureaucracy and technology-driven modern civilization.
As a shared trend in urban transformation, rationalization and modernization have already shown strong positive functions: they make urban dwellers place greater emphasis on knowledge accumulation, focus more on efficiency and effectiveness, be more willing to participate broadly in social affairs, accept new things more readily, and gradually enhance innovation capabilities. They also foster greater emphasis on equality, contracts, and norms among individuals. At the same time, the book is acutely aware of the potential negative functions of rationalization and modernization, as well as their limited explanatory power and short-term applicability.
Nevertheless, in China's urban transformation, given that the rationality and modernity of urban dwellers are far from sufficient, there is still a need to encourage and guide the rationalization and modernization tendencies observed in them. When other Western developed countries have already completed their modernization journey and entered post-modernity, while more than two-thirds of China's population remains trapped in traditional society or is just beginning to transition to modernity, Chinese urban dwellers must absorb more rationality and modernity to drive the overall growth of rationality and modernity among the Chinese population.
The book takes the rationalization and modernization of individuals as the central concept, constructing a theoretical framework based on the interactive relationship among individual transformation, rationalization, and modernization. It selects Nanjing and Shanghai residents as empirical research samples, employing a multi-stage sampling questionnaire survey combined with SPSS software for statistical analysis to conduct an in-depth study of the trends, patterns, and driving forces of urban dwellers' rationalization and modernization. It also provides quantitative and qualitative analyses of the impact of personal ascriptive factors (such as gender and age), self-made factors (such as education and occupation), and sociocultural factors (such as urban and cultural contexts) on individual transformation, concluding that the combined effect of these factors leads to the growth of individual rationality and modernity.