Using social networks to study the political culture of modern China

Using social networks to study the political culture of modern China


Bocharova A. P.,

MGIMO University; HSE University, Moscow, Russia, apbocharova@hse.ru


elibrary_id: 1166779 | ORCID: 0000-0002-2167-8342 |

Lukin A.V.,

MGIMO University; HSE University, Moscow, Russia, a.lukin@inno.mgimo.ru


elibrary_id: 696524 | ORCID: 0000-0002-1962-2892 | RESEARCHER_ID: L-4986-2015

Perminova A. A.,

Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences; HSE University, Moscow, Russia, perminova@iccaras.ru


elibrary_id: 1166307 | ORCID: 0000-0002-0187-7635 |

Puzanova O. V.,

MGIMO University; HSE University, Moscow, Russia, opuzanova@hse.ru


elibrary_id: 855568 | ORCID: 0000-0002-2200-2686 | RESEARCHER_ID: F-1808-2016

Article received: 2023.10.23. Accepted: 2024.01.21


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2024.03.07
EDN: ETTAVA


For citation:

Bocharova A. P., Lukin A.V., Perminova A. A., Puzanova O. V. Using social networks to study the political culture of modern China. – Polis. Political Studies. 2024. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2024.03.07. EDN: ETTAVA


The study was supported by MGIMO University, project no. 2025-04-03.


Abstract

The article systematizes the main approaches adopted by a group of researchers from MGIMO University, HSE University and the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, united within the framework of the ”Moscow Project for the Study of Chinese Political Culture”, to investigate the political culture of modern China through the monitoring of social networks. The authors analyze the existing ideas about political culture in the Chinese academic discourse, identify problems in studying the political views of Chinese citizens by traditional sociological methods (surveys, questionnaires). They further explain the relevance of using social network analysis in modern studies of Chinese society, and also describe the methodology they developed for studying social networks using sentiment analysis. The article lays the theoretical and methodological basis for further research on modern Chinese society based on an array of data from Chinese social networks.

Keywords
Chinese political culture, Internet public opinion, social network analysis, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, neural networks.


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Content No. 3, 2024

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Polis. Political Studies
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Russia: Identity Politics and Post-Communist Option

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