2007: Analysis and Forecast of China's Social Situation - Review of Annual Information. Forecasting the Future (Includes CD-ROM)

Author: Ru Xin, Lu Xueyi, Li Peilin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: In the process of comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society and strengthening the construction of a harmonious society, governments at all levels are paying increasing attention to the investigation and analysis of social attitudes. This is mainly because, with the improvement of material living standards, people are also placing greater importance on it. Moreover, social attitudes are closely linked to people's behavioral choices. The needs, expectations, desires, satisfaction, sense of security, sense of belonging, sense of happiness, sense of achievement, and social identity of the masses are an important aspect of analyzing social conditions and grasping the trends of development. However, it should also be noted that the influencing factors of social attitudes are very complex and cannot be simply represented by certain social attitude indicators to measure performance, as doing so may sometimes lead to. For example, some local governments now include happiness in development evaluation indicators, which should be done with caution. Because research on happiness by academic circles worldwide, including China, has shown that happiness is a feeling and does not necessarily represent a recognized form of happiness. It does not directly correlate with the amount of wealth or the level of living standards. What may have a greater impact on happiness is the level of expectations, the size of desires, the closeness of the reference comparison object, the degree of social openness, and the pace of social change. Therefore, the happiness of a billionaire and a local villager may not differ significantly, and happiness does not necessarily increase significantly with the improvement of living standards. But studying the changes in social attitudes is not without meaning. For example, certain social attitude indicators can at least tell us that the groups most likely to produce dissatisfaction may not be those with difficulties in life, but rather those whose expectations differ greatly from their own living standards. The authors of this book come from professional research and survey institutions, universities, and relevant research departments of government. In addition to the main report, the views of the individual authors only belong to the authors themselves and do not represent the main research team or the units to which the authors belong.