Beyond Convergence andDivergence:
Mapping the Changing Class
Structure in Asian Textbooks
Tai-lok Lui
Sociology Department
University of Hong Kong1Preamble
 This, basically, is a think piece – if there wereto be a textbook (or textbooks) on East
Asian/Asian Sociology, what would it look like
 Here in this panel we shall proceed withfocusing on 1-2 key questions (socialstratification and social inequalities) and takea quick survey of what has been (and how)researched We’ll start with the pieces before deciding
whether there is a puzzle to deal with.
21

Broader Background This is also the appropriate time to rethink thevalue of an Asian Sociology
This is NOT to challenge the methodologies thatsociologists around the world have alreadydeveloped and used well
 Nor are we arguing that only local specificconcepts are meaningful Rather we are suggesting we’ll need to develop a
new attitude to assist us in interpreting socialchanges in a globalizing world in a moremeaningful way3

Does Class Matter?
 Many Asian sociologists began not so muchwith the application of class concept but witha rejection (or reservation) of its applicabilityDistinctively different modus operandi e.g., guanxi and inter-personal relationships inChinese societies


Political environment in different Asian societies

 Gradually by the late 1970s and early 1980s,

then social stratification has been taken up as
an issue of growing concern
42

Does Class Matter?
A common response was to conduct the study ofoccupational prestige and the ranking ofoccupations
This was taken up by sociologists on either side of thedebate Some wanted to argue that gradually, as a result ofindustrialization, the social foundation of the social
stratification system in developing Asian societies converge
with those in advanced industrial societies
 Others wanted to suggest that there continued to exist asignificant gap that would not warrant a straight-forward
application of those so-called Western concepts
e.g., the persistence of small business5

Espousing Convergence Without
Saying So
The intensification of industrialization and economic
development in Asian societies (say, the Four Little
Dragons in the 1970s and 1980s) brought
stratification studies onto the social agenda
 Researchers informed by either modernization
theory or Marxism would start with similar premisesChanging social structure as an outcome of socioeconomic transformation brought about industrialization,etc.
 Sectoral shift (from agriculture to manufactuing, andfrom manufacturing to the tertiary sector)
 Stages of capitalism and/or articulation of modes ofproduction63

Espousing Convergence Without
Saying So

The stimulus-response (or change-reaction)
approach to study the changing social structure

Changing social structure to be interpreted in the light oftransformation in the macro environment
 Modernization theory: the passage of the traditionalsocial order Marxism: a new class structure under neo-capitalism

Some hidden assumptions about convergence andthe idea of some kind of benchmarking
 Inadequacy of such an approach becoming evident
in the 1990s


7“Empire Strikes Back” andMore Failure of the earlier attempts to answer localquestions. Just to give a few examples


The need of analyzing the immediate institutional
context
 the “under-performance” of the middle class It is not just about whether the concept of middle classis relevant and/or there really exists a middle class indifferent Asian societies, but rather it touches on how
we should proceed to analyze the middle class andinterpret their attitudes and behaviours84

“Empire Strikes Back” andMore Examples (continued)

The inadequacy of a uni-directional model ofdevelopment
 e.g., the market transition thesisThe impacts of globalization
 global city network and city as a unit of analysis?
 New emerging cleavages that shape our life chances

e.g., the mobility (and thus transferability of skills) ofservices – new mobile middle class vs embedded middle
class in Hong Kong
9Concluding Remarks
 A new round of reflection on Asian Sociology

The changing relevance of the so-called WesternSociology
 The lessons to be learnt from intra-Asia
comparison
 To have something to share without suggestingthat there’s a common path of development
 A new perspective for unpacking the “social”
 e.g., the role of the state in social stratification

105