Diversity Within Limits: Post-positivism, Gender Studies and the Sociology of Consumption

Abstract

Important as it was, social transformation did not exhaust the research interests of Chinese sociologists. Robust growth could be found in post-positivist methodology, gender studies and the sociology of consumption among other subfields, all of which testifying to an ongoing trend of diversification in Chinese sociology. Qualitative methods were introduced, discussed and applied. Out of the socialist tradition of women studies in the 1980s, gender studies developed by virtue of an alliance and dialogue with feminist activism and civil society. Sociology of consumption transcended the moralistic overtone of its predecessor “lifestyle studies” and became the strong suit of sociologists at Shanghai and other coastal cities. But all these developments did not so much challenge than supplement and extend the dominant paradigm of CASS stratification research.