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BA 1997 Yale University Areas
of Interest: Theory Culture Economic
sociology Religion China Organizations Public sociology |
Dyadic Ethics: How Person-to-Person Obligations Change the Meaning of
Debt and Group Strength in Rural China My dissertation
focuses on the effect of moral understandings on the economy. I ask the question
“What are the conditions under which people pay debts?” in the context of
microcredit poverty alleviation programs in rural China. In this region,
villagers barely live above subsistence despite economic growth in other
parts of the country. Considering power, network, and cultural explanations,
I compare two very similar programs with dramatically different repayment
rates. I find that one program makes paying the debt a person-to-group
obligation, while the other makes it a person-to-person (dyadic) obligation.
I argue that, in my field site where Confucian ideas are important, dyadic
obligations are much more meaningful to the villagers than person-to-group
obligations. The consideration of these Confucian ideas provides a new
framework for understanding why the villagers respond differently to debt
obligations. 31 years ago,
Muhummad Yunus started the Grameen Bank, giving small loans to poor
Bangladeshi women using social collateral to guarantee the loans. Because the
borrowers were poor, they did not have enough property for lenders to claim
if they did not repay the loan. Instead, the Grameen Bank used social
collateral - that is, instead of using property as collateral for the loan,
social ties were used to motivate repayment. Between 2004 and
2007, I conducted 145 interviews of informants involved in microcredit: 100
of villagers and 45 of staff in a region in rural China where villagers
barely live above subsistence despite economic growth in other parts of the
country. The two microcredit programs were based on
two different models of social obligation, and one program resonated better
with local ethical and moral understandings than the other. The first program
is based on the Grameen Bank model in which no one in the lending group (the
village) can receive subsequent loans until all repay. The type of obligation
is person-to-group. In contrast, the second program is a dyadic liability
program, where an a guarantor assumes financial
responsibility for an entire village. If a villager does not repay his loan,
the leader repays on his behalf, transferring the debt so that it becomes a d
yadic debt. This type of obligation is person-to-person. In rural China, an important part of the cultural makeup are dyadic
ethics, which stem from Confucian ideas that have been present for more than
two millennia. Dyadic ethics are a type of morality that places each
individual in proper relationship with the cosmos and all other people. Like
individualism in American society, Confucian ethics in China are a source of
meaning reflected in language, rituals, and social patterns, rather than a
conscious study or application of ancient Confucian texts. Relations are to
be differentiated according to the intimacy between the individual and the
other person. Confucian thought does not ignore or denigrate the role of the
individual, but the individual is defined in relationship to others. Morality depends
on the particular social relationship and varies according to the relationship.
There are particular things one should do in regard to one relationship, and
other things one should do in regard to other relationships. For example, in
a well-known story, Confucius was told of a just and moral ruler who, when he
caught his father stealing sheep, brought his father before the courts.
Confucius was unimpressed and replied that in his own province, an honorable
son would have lied to protect his father because that is what one ought to
do in his role as a son. This understanding of morality, then, is dyadic. Simmel argued
that the structure or configuration of the group has a great effect on the
interactions. The dyad has unique properties, and adding even just one person
to form a triad changes the interactions greatly. However, Simmel treated the
properties of group structure as universal and did not discuss the
possibility that dyads may be more prominent in certain societies. Subsequent
work has mainly used the dyad as an independent variable rather than an
outcome caused by other factors. I argue that there are differences in the
degree to which moral accounts emphasize dyadic relationships. I find that the
villagers emphasize dyadic ethics in their explanations of their decisions in
the microcredit programs. Where the debt was an obligation between two
persons, a much more favorable response was given. The difference between the
two programs is the meaning and structure of the obligation. People paid
debts if the obligation made sense to them, and in this field site, dyadic
obligations made much more sense. One paper from my
dissertation is entitled "Debt and Moral Obligation: Culture, Networks
and Microcredit in Rural China." This is one segment of an earlier paper
that won an honorable mention for the 2008 best graduate student paper award
from the ASA Theory Section as well as the 2008 Student Practitioner Award
from the ASA Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section. Another paper
from my dissertation is entitled "Dyads, Collective Sanctions, and
Culture: Weakness of Strong Ties in a Chinese Microloan Program." I use
the findings from my field site as a counter-example to the idea in some of
the sociological literatures that strong interpersonal ties lead to strong
person-to-group ties. Relationships are life-long and multiplex in the
villages, but this undermines the strength of the group as individuals
prioritize their ties with each other above the welfare of the group in the
context of the microcredit programs. An earlier version of this paper won
both the 2007 best graduate student paper award from the ASA Section on Asia
and Asian America and the 2007 best graduate student paper award on any topic
from the Eastern Sociological Society. Published and
unpublished papers are listed below by topic. WHY PEOPLE PAY
DEBTS 2009. Hsu, Becky. “Debt
and Moral Obligation: Culture, Networks and Microcredit in Rural China.”
Under review.<PDF> What
are the conditions under which people pay debts? Using ethnographic and
interview data from borrowers in microcredit programs in a county in rural
China, I consider sufficiency, power, network, and cultural explanations. In
a region where villagers barely live above subsistence d espite economic
growth in other parts of the country, I compare two microcredit programs with
dramatically different responses. One program makes paying the debt a
person-to-group obligation, while the other makes it a person-to-person
obligation. In this field site where Confucian ideas are important,
particularistic obligations are much more meaningful to the villagers than
collective obligations. The consideration of these Confucian ideas provides a
new framework for understanding why the villagers respond differently to debt
obligations. 2009. Hsu, Becky. “Dyads,
Collective Sanctions, and Culture: Weakness of Strong Ties in a Chinese
Microloan Program.” <PDF> - Winner, ASA
Section on Asia and Asian America student paper award - Winner, Eastern Sociological Society
Candace Rogers Award for best student paper What
is the relationship of strong dyadic ties to collective sanctions? This
article considers three perspectives on sanctions (as power, as burden, and
as cultural constructs) in investigating a case in rural China where
villagers in a group incentive microcredit program are held accountable for
one another’s conduct. Relying on 94 interviews in Yunnan villages, this
article finds that social ties are strong in the villages, and yet sanctions
are viewed as a burden. Results suggest that the dyad dominates moral
understanding and social structure in the field site, shaping the meaning of
sanctions. Under these conditions, villagers avoid imposing sanctions,
prioritizing their dyadic relationships over the collective good. Despite
financial incentives at both the personal and group levels, villagers in the
field site are reluctant to monitor and sanction each other. Analyses using
in situ approaches illustrate how cultural meaning influences collective
sanctions. The author discusses the research implications on culture and the
dyad, social capital, and international poverty alleviation. Hsu, Becky. “Mismatched Moral Dispositions and Economic
Logics: Social Collateral, Liability, and Microcredit in Rural China.” Working
paper. - Winner, ASA Sociological Practice
Section student award - Honorable mention, ASA Theory Section student paper award Economic
decisions are thoroughly moralized by those making them. The implementation of
microcredit programs in rural China offers a setting for analyzing the
dissimilarity between the dispositions assumed in the programs and the
dispositions of the local society. Interviews and ethnographic observation in
a county in rural Yunnan reveal that the villagers interpret program
stipulations according to their practical economic rationality and logics.
Building on approaches to economic sociology that follow the “moralized
markets” perspective, this paper demonstrates that: (1) microcredit programs
are designed with an underlying ideology; (2) social life in the field site
is built upon specific moral underpinnings based on dyadic ethics and role
confinement; and (3) when presented with microcredit programs, Chinese
villagers frame economic decisions within their understandings of morality
and self-interest. This study compares villager reactions to two microcredit
programs based upon social collateral (the first based on group liability,
the second based on dyadic liability). Beyond offering empirical data on how
villagers participate in the market as social actors that define economic
activities as moral actions, the analysis leads us to examine new ways that
morality, rationality and economic decision are intertwined. CULTURE AND THE
DYAD 2009. Hsu, Becky. “Culture and the Dyad.”
How does
culture influence the prevalence of the dyad in a society? A theory of
culture and the dyad is developed in this article. After reviewing cultural
sociology literature to examine the possibility that culture might affect the
dyad, I sketch a model that considers specifically how culture might be
implicated in the prevalence of the dyad in a society. Then, I provide an
empirical illustration of the model by drawing upon comparative philosophical
scholarship and ethnographic evidence demonstrating how Chinese concepts of
morality increase the prominence of the dyad. Implications and directions for
future research on culture’s influence on the dyad are set forth. INTERNATIONAL
RELIGION DATA 2008. Hsu, Becky, Amy Reynolds, Conrad
Hackett, and Jim Gibbons. “Estimating the Religious Composition of All
Nations: An Empirical Assessment.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
47(4):678-693.<PDF> The
international religious data in the World Christian Database (WCD), and its
print predecessor, the World Christian Encyclopedia (WCE), have been used
frequently in academic studies and the popular press. While scholars have
raised questions about the WCD’s estimation, categories, and potential bias,
the data have not yet been systematically assessed. We test the reliability
of the WCD by comparing its religious composition estimates to four other
data sources (World Values Survey, Pew Global Assessment Project, CIA World
Factbook, and the U.S. Department of State), finding that estimates are
highly correlated. In comparing the WCD estimates for Islamic countries and
American Christian adherents with local data sources, we identify specific
groups for which estimates differ. In addition, we discuss countries where
the data sets provide inconsistent religious estimates. Religious composition
estimates in the World Christian Database are generally plausible and
consistent with other data sets. The World Christian Database also includes
comprehensive non-religious data. We conclude with recommendations regarding
the use of the WCD in future analysis. This paper
is cited in the following: Grim, Brian J., and Roger Finke.
2007. "Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing
Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies?" American Sociological Review
72:633-658. European
Social Survey, “Contextual data for the European Social Survey: An overview
and assessment of extant sources.” <PDF> http://www.nsd.uib.no/macrodataguide/set.html?id=47&sub=1 Worldmapper
global mapping project at the University of Sheffield http://www.worldmapper.org/extraindex/religion_notes.html Grim, Brian and Becky Hsu. “Measuring the
World Muslim Population.” Working paper. Interest in
Muslims has increased greatly in the past decade, yet there have been very
few academic efforts to estimate the total number of Muslims in the world.
This may not be as surprising when taking into account the difficulty of the
task because of the lack of religion data in the largest international data
sets, inconsistent data gathering methods, incompleteness of data sets. We
offer a best estimate for the number of Muslims in the world along with a
discussion of tricky issues when measuring Muslims. For specialists in the
sociology of religion, our paper offers a discussion of issues that arise
when producing data on religion. For nonspecialists of religion, we offer
straightforward estimates for the total number of Muslims in the world as
well as estimates of Muslims in each country. After presenting a discussion
of the difficulties and issues that arise when one tries to create an
estimate of Muslims worldwide, we outline the rationale for our estimate. We
also present a comparison of our numbers with other sources. SOCIAL SERVICES 2004. Wuthnow, Robert, Conrad Hackett,
and Becky Hsu. "The Effectiveness and Trustworthiness of Faith-Based and
Other Service Organizations: A Study of Recipients' Perceptions." Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion 43: 1-17. <PDF> - Winner, ASA
Sociology of Religion Section distinguished article award Drawing on a new community study of more
than 2,000 residents of low-income neighborhoods, we examine information
about the kinds of service organizations respondents have contacted for
assistance and the perceptions of these respondents about the effectiveness
and trustworthiness of those organizations. We compare contact with and
perceptions of faith-based organizations, nonsectarian organizations,
government agencies, hospitals, and churches and employ a method that takes
account of respondents’ varying portfolios of service providers. The results
indicate that the recipients of faith-based organizations resemble those of
the public welfare department in the extent of financial need and scope of
family problems, and differ significantly from recipients of help from
congregations. The results also indicate that recipients’
evaluations of the effectiveness and trustworthiness of their portfolio of
service organizations are lower when they have sought assistance from public
welfare agencies and higher when they have sought assistance from
congregations, but are not significantly affected by having contacted faith-based
or nonsectarian organizations. Hsu, Becky, Stephanie Boddie and Conrad
Hackett. “The
Influence of Individual Characteristics on Desired Qualities in Social
Service Providers.” Working paper. Do recipients vary
in the qualities desired in social service providers based on their
individual characteristics? Using the Lehigh Valley Trust Survey, a survey of
low-income neighborhoods in a mid- sized urban area of northeastern
Pennsylvania (n=2,077), we find that recipients of
social services differ in their desire for specific qualities in social
service providers. The results suggest that the desire for similarity in
religion and race is much stronger among African-Americans, Latinos,
immigrants, those with less education, and evangelical Protestants. Findings
also indicate that the desire for knowledge and experience is higher among
college graduates. Finally, findings suggest that the desire for friendliness
and sincerity is higher in those over age 60. Conversely, African-Americans,
immigrants, and those with lower incomes desire friendliness and sincerity
less in a social service provider. These findings suggest that practitioners
can better align their service referrals or their particular programs for
certain kinds of clients. Implications are that there may be other processes
to look at - namely, the interaction of the client and the practitioner - for
information on how to best serve the client. RELIGION, THE
ECONOMY, AND THE LAW 2007. Hsu, Becky. “Social Capital as the
Underlying Mechanism Linking Religion and Economic Development.” The
International Scope Review 8(13). The purpose of
this paper is to examine the linkages between religion, social ties, and
economic activity through examining three relevant cases in the literature:
the first case, explicates how values stemming from religious beliefs inform
the desire to save money as well as the ability to prevent default. The
strength of social ties in informal lending societies in Indonesia enabled the
groups, ultimately, to embark on remarkable entrepreneurial activities. The
second case, a Buddhist charity organization based in Taiwan, focuses on the
group cohesion created by a charismatic leadership. The members of the group
give of their time and finances sacrificially, giving them the ability to
raise millions of dollars and create organizational infrastructure to handle
the building of hospitals and television stations. The third case, an
American women’s prayer group with Pentecostal roots, illustrates the social
mechanisms by which the sense of facing adversities together leads to
establishing linked identities. These linked identities and common values are
an important determinant of the members’ consumer spending patterns. Hsu,
Becky. “Social Sources of Customary Trustworthiness: The Effect of Religion,
Moral Crystallization and Associational Participation on Propensity to Obey
Laws.” Working paper. What social contexts
increase and decrease one’s attitude towards law-abidingness? The sociological
literature points to the possibility that religion, moral reasoning, and
associational participation are influences on the propensity to obey laws.
This paper focuses on two sets of questions: First, is the propensity to obey
laws a meaningful single construct? Second, what are some social predictors
of law-abidingness? Using data from a large U.S. sample (n=1,200),
confirmatory factor analyses are conducted to examine the factorial validity
of a latent construct representing law-abiding attitudes. Structural equation
models are then used to determine the influence of religious attendance,
moral understandings, and associational participation on law-abiding
attitudes. There are several important findings, including that (1) one’s
attitude toward law-abidingness is measurable as a single, unobserved
variable; (2) attendance of religious services and moral absolutism are both
positively associated with law-abiding attitudes; and (3) membership in many
different types of voluntary associations is negatively associated with the
propensity to obey laws. |
