Guanxi Civility: Processes, Potentials, and Contingencies

Ming-Cheng M. Lo and Eileen M. Otis

Politics & Society, 2003, vol. 31, issue 1, 131-162

Abstract: Building on research that analyzes how social relations and networks ( guanxi ) shape the Chinese market, this article asks a less-studied question: How is the market changing guanxi ? The authors trace the transformation of guanxi from communal, kin-based ties to a cultural metaphor with which diverse individuals build flexible social relationships in late-socialist China. As a “generalized particularism,†this cultural metaphor provides something analogous to the culture of civility in Western societies. The authors discuss the political potential of guanxi in terms of its dual tendency toward the “publicization†and “privatization†of power. The development of guanxi civility suggests the diverse cultural origins of civility and serves as a reminder of the particularistic roots in the universalistic assumption of Western civility.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329202250165 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:31:y:2003:i:1:p:131-162

DOI: 10.1177/0032329202250165

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Politics & Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().