Editor's Introduction

Abstract

In the past several issues of Chinese Sociology and Anthropology we have focused our attention on socio-historical surveys produced as part of the "Four Histories Movement" of 1962-1966. Our purpose has been to provide our readers with a sampling of a voluminous literature touching upon important social institutions and organizations: the family, the village, the commune, and the industrial enterprise (factories and mines) — the four institutional and organizational realms defining the scope of the Four Histories Movement.