Journal Articles

When Formal Laws and Informal Norms Collide : Lineage Networks versus Birth Control Policy in China

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Ancestor worship and bloodline continuation are the core norms of lineage in China. Beginning in the late 1970s, these cultural norms came into direct confrontation with the state birth control policy. Pitched against each other are the antinatalist laws backed by the powerful and unyielding state apparatus on the one side and the ancient pronatalist norms backed by revived lineage networks on the other. Even though the draconian state policies did succeed in dramatically reducing the overall birthrates, data analyses show that villages with strong kinship networks tend to have higher birthrates. The findings demonstrate the normative capacity of social networks to bend the iron bars of formal institutions. A general framework is developed for analyzing the roles of social networks in four ideal-typical juxtapositions of formal and informal institutions: normativism, legalism, congruence, and conflict.

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Series Title

American journal of Sociology

Call Number

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Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

00029602

Classification

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Content Type

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Edition

Vol. 116, No. 3, November 2010. pp. 770-805

Subject(s)

China
When formal laws and informal norms

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