China Social Science Review

No.1, 2025

 

 

Hu Anning and Sheng Qucheng

 

Conceptualization is an important part of the social science research, but in deductive conceptualization, researchers are often faced with the dilemma of multiple conceptualizations. One of the reasons is that researchers have left conceptualization at “coding,” which is oriented towards conceptual naming, and have not delved into “mapping,” which is oriented towards theoretical interpretation. Coding emphasizes the theoretical “naming” of the object under study; mapping, on the other hand, emphasizes the placement of the object under study within a certain conceptual network (theory) as a means of seeking mechanisms for understanding or explaining the social phenomenon.