On the changing structure of social networks in urban China

This study is a replication of a survey on personal networks conducted 7 years earlier in Tianjin, China. Comparing the results of the two surveys reveals a large amount of change. Tianjin residents now report having more ties to friends and to associates beyond work and family, and fewer workplace ties and far fewer family ties. Women have gained on men in the number of friends, and young people have fewer workplace ties. These changes at the micro-level are examined in the light of changes in the Chinese macro-social structure. 1. On the changing structure of social networks in urban China T h e s tudy r epo r t ed he re is a 1993 rep l i ca t ion o f a su rvey c o n d u c t e d in 1986 in the ci ty o f T ian j in , Ch ina . In bo th cases , i nd iv idua l s were a sked to n a m e o thers to w h o m they h a d pe r sona l ties. A l t h o u g h d i f fe ren t r e s p o n d e n t s were i n t e r v i e w e d in each survey , the use o f the s a m e n a m e gene ra to r a l lows us to see h o w pe r sona l n e t w o r k s h a v e c h a n g e d in T i an j i n o v e r 7 years. C o m p a r i n g the resul t s o f the 1986 su rvey wi th those o f 1993 revea l s tha t a good deal o f c h a n g e has occurred . Indeed , the pa t t e rn ing o f i n t e rpe r sona l r e l a t ionsh ips in T ian j in * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. 1 Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference, New Orleans, February, 1994 and at the Conference, "Tianjin Today: An Emerging Civil Society?" at UC-San Diego. We wish to thank the Luce Foundation for their financial support and the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences for their cooperation on the survey. We also want to thank Peter Blau, Deborah Davis, David Morgan, William Parish, Jill Suitor, Andrew Walder, Barry Wellman, and Wen Xie, for their helpful comments. The first author was also supported partly by an ASA/NSF grant for the advancement of the discipline. 0378-8733/96/$15.00 Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PH S 0 3 7 8 8 7 3 3 ( 9 6 ) 0 0 2 9 2 4 76 D. Ruan et a l . / Social Networks 19 (1997) 75-89 seems to have shifted dramatically in only 7 years. In the present report we will describe those shifts. But we will go beyond these descriptions and speculate about some of the possible bases for the specific changes that we have observed. In particular, we will try to make sense of any observed changes in interpersonal linkages in the light of what we know about recent alterations in the broad structure of Chinese society. Hopefully, our speculations will provide insights that can be used as guides in the development of hypotheses for future research. In the present analysis they are not intended to be conclusive; they are simply exploratory. 2 2. The 1986 Tianjin survey The city of Tianjin is located about 100 miles south-east of the Chinese capital, Beijing. As the third largest city in the country, after Shanghai and Beijing, it is an industrial and trading center. There are about four million residents living in the city, and another four million living in the four suburbs and five nearby rural counties (Duan et al., 1987). Tianjin is administered on three levels: districts, wards, and residents' committees; the last one is the neighborhood organization through which the government controls urban residents' life at home and those who do not belong to any organization, e.g. school or workplace. There are nine districts, 124 wards, and about 2000 residents' committees in the urban area of the city (Duan et al., 1987). Respondents were randomly chosen from a sample of Tianjin households in the third annual survey, organized by the Tianjin city government and the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. First a purposive sample of 36 wards was selected in a way that assured a balance of neighborhood types representing the city as a whole. It included commercial, administrative, industrial, housing projects, and waterfront areas. Within each selected ward, one residents' committee was randomly chosen. Next, all the households in the selected residents' committee, were classified according to the occupation of the head of the household. This classification was based on the seven occupational categories used in the 1982 census. From each occupational category, a number of households were selected randomly, proportional to the frequency of that occupation in Tianjin in the 1982 census. Finally, in every household selected, the family member chosen for interview was the one who was 18 or older, employed or retired, and whose date of birth was closest to October 1. The total number of respondents was 1011. The survey included a section on personal networks adapted by Danching Ruan from the American General Social Survey (GSS) of 1985 (Burt, 1984, Burt, 1985). Ruan introduced minor revisions in the wording of questions in order to adapt the instrument to Chinese conditions. 2 The 1986 project was directed by Peter Blau and Andrew Walder of Columbia University and Zhou Lu of the Sociology Institute of the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, INT-8615759. D. Ruan et a l . / Social Networks 19 (1997) 75-89 77