Guanxi Civility: Processes, Potentials, and Contingencies
- 1 March 2003
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Politics & Society
- Vol. 31 (1), 131-162
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329202250165
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.Keywords
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