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Guanxi, Social Capital and School Choice in China pp 153–165Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Trust in Ritual Capital

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Abstract

Trust is one of the important elements of social capital (Fukuyama 1995; Halpern 2005; Smart 1993). The research presented in this book has found two types of trust in guanxi networks: trust produced by virtues, and trust produced by rituals. The former is derived from moral commitment and the latter mainly from “encapsulated interest” (Hardin 2006). Ritual capital, which is based on the latter, is the ability to use ritual to acquire social resources; it is developed by the building of trust through ritual practice. In this ritual practice, what really enhances the trusting relationship is the norm behind the ritual applied: people in the two cities researched here observed others’ ritual practice to see if they followed the same renqing ethic. If shared norms and ethical systems are observed, people can act with trust, and successful ritual enhances social capital and trusting relationships (Durkheim 1965[1912]; Collins 2004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, Guangdong, China

    Ji Ruan

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  1. Ji Ruan
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Ruan, J. (2017). Trust in Ritual Capital. In: Guanxi, Social Capital and School Choice in China. Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40754-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40754-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40753-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40754-8

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