The evolution and transformation of youth entrepreneurship in China: a sociological analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to conduct a socio-historical study of the evolution and stages of the formation of youth entrepreneurship in China. The main problem is to identify and characterize the evolution and patterns that reveal the entrepreneurship of Chinese youth as a market mechanism that successfully functions in the conditions of the socialist economy of China. The object of the study is the entrepreneurial activity of young Chinese people. The subject of the study is the systematization of the stages of formation of youth entrepreneurship in various periods of transformation of Chinese society. The sources of information are scientific research carried out by Russian and Chinese researchers, as well as researchers from other countries. A comprehensive analysis of the sociodynamics of the development of youth entrepreneurship in China allows us to thoroughly and objectively identify and characterize the main systemic connections of this social phenomenon. The research methodology assumes a socio-historical analysis of the stages of the formation of youth entrepreneurship in China. A generalized analysis of the significant dependence of youth entrepreneurship on the general trends in the development of entrepreneurship in China as a social institution and the need for significant regulatory, organizational, educational efforts on the part of society and the state for its formation, maintenance and development is carried out. It is shown that at the stage of transition of Chinese society from subsistence farming to a planned economy (1945-1950), youth entrepreneurship was mainly spontaneous, non-institutional in nature and manifested itself as facts of entrepreneurial activity of individuals. The patriarchal way of life and rigid hierarchies of relations did not contribute to the development of entrepreneurial initiative of young people. At the second stage, in the process of transition to an industrial society (1951-1966), the centralization of the economy is increasing, and the main areas of activity of Chinese youth are directed to the political sphere, to the detriment of entrepreneurial initiatives in the economy. The third stage, the transition to an open society (1967-1978), is characterized by changes in the understanding of the political role of youth in society, the era after the Cultural Revolution laid the foundation for recognizing the important role of market foundations and youth entrepreneurship in the subsequent stages of China's development. The transition to a legal society (the fourth stage of the "Four Modernizations", after 1978), gives impetus to the development of youth entrepreneurship in China.