Journal of China in Global and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract: The author’s experience in building contacts with social scientists in China in the 1980s assisted in the editorial policy of the new journal of the International Sociological Association, International Sociology, establishing collaboration with the new journal Shehuixue Yanjiu, both founded in 1986. That policy fed into the theme of the 1990 World Congress in Madrid, ‘Sociology for One World: Unity and Diversity’. Chinese papers contributed to a developing debate about the globalization of sociology, its sinification and the universalistic credentials of sociology. This episode illustrates the ongoing reflexivity of sociology when in encounters between cultures it seeks to overcome conceptual differences by attending to common features of the human condition and challenges that confront all humankind.

Keywords: Fei Xiaotong, International Sociological Association, Chinese Sociological Association, International Sociology, Shehuixue Yanjiu, universalism, internationalization, modernization, indigenization, sinification, sinicization, globalization, reflexivity