Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Notes on the Spelling -- Table of Figures -- PART I. Introducing Cass -- Chapter One. Introduction -- Aims -- Questions, problems and methodological limitations -- Collecting materials: politics, administrative organization and livelihood -- Participant observation and the questions it raised -- Structure and contents of Shaping the Reforms, Academia and China -- Chapter Two. Locating CASS -- CASS and the political establishment -- CASS as an organization under the State Council and Party supervision -- CASS and the generation of 'public discussion' -- Internal and external organization -- Professional titles and ranking at CASS -- Lateral relations and personnel exchange -- Chapter Three. The Establishment of CASS and the Process of PRC State-Building -- Academic institutes and China's state building process since 1949 -- The precursor of CASS: the Xuebu -- Establishing CASS -- The formation of CASS: a vote for order and informed authority -- Building state institutions and regulating academic life -- PART II. Pre-1989 Academic Struggle -- Chapter Four. Initial Reform (1977-1982)-Rehabilitations and Expectations -- Leadership changes at CASS (1977-1982) -- Chapter Five. Academic Democracy and Spiritual Pollution (1982-1985) -- Ups and downs -- Spiritual pollution -- Leadership changes at CASS (1982-1985) -- Criticizing both Left and Right -- Chapter Six. Division among Intellectuals (1985-1988)-Socialist Modernization and the Reforms -- Changing the leadership of CASS (1985-1988) -- Relaxation and some major hiccups -- Tying down Bourgeois Liberalization -- Repercussions -- Compromising political reform -- Closing the first decade: intellectual dispute and co-option in a socialist nation-state -- PART III. From Critical to Guided Academic Dispute (1988-1998).

Chapter Seven. Increasing Open Conflict in the Ideological Sphere (1988-1989) -- Revaluation of socialism -- Disillusionment among reformists -- Proponents of neo-authoritarianism and of democracy -- Increasingly open debate -- Around the June Fourth 1989 demonstrations -- Leadership changes (1988-1991) -- Punitive measures -- Chapter Eight. Tightening Control and the Liberalization of Academic Research (1990-1992) -- The primacy of the CASS Party Committee and the 'responsibility system' -- The implementation of the responsibility system and the 'twenty-character guideline' -- Yu Wen and the 'Work Regulations for Academic Planning' -- Deng's Southern Inspection Tour -- Chapter Nine. Deepening the Reforms (1993-1998) -- Shaping the 'Deepening of the Reforms' and 'Earning Money' at CASS -- Change of leadership (1993-1998) -- CASS leaders and state policy-making -- State policy-making and research: spreading the message -- The case of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics -- Academic work under the aegis of Party Committees -- Chapter Ten. Who Works at CASS and Why? -- Research and political requirements -- Recruitment problems -- Working conditions at CASS (1989-1998) -- Promotion, benefits and facilities at CASS -- Rewards and benefits -- Financial burdens of CASS -- Financial incentives -- Conducting research at CASS -- Part three: from critical to guided academic dispute (1988-1998) -- Leaders and the led: patterns of institutional development -- Patron dependency -- Leadership adjustments -- Regulatory functions of the academic hierarchy -- PART IV. Reforms at Cass: Symbolic Knowledge, Party Guidance, and Academic Streamlining -- Chapter Eleven. National, Rational, and Symbolic Understanding in Academic China and CASS -- Reconceptualizing the nation -- Feudalism and the backward nation.

Party-state and dissidence: diverging concepts of national strength and authority -- Symbolic and cognitive aspects of knowledge production -- An example: Jiang Zemin's symbolism and the mission of patriotic intellectuals -- National symbolism and the rationality of research -- Chapter Twelve. The Transformation of Party Guidance in CASS -- Transforming party guidance -- Practice as the only criterion for truth? -- Modernizing Marxism -- Dealing with the failure of the political reforms -- Re-identification of Party loyalty with the nation -- Guidelines for academic writing under Socialism with Chinese Characteristics -- The Key Research Items and the Compass -- The changing role of Party guidance -- Chapter Thirteen. Streamlining CASS-From Direct Control to Regulatory Information Networks -- Deepening of the Reforms in the early 1990s -- The 'Views' and the Deepening of Reforms at CASS -- Personnel management -- Academic exchanges -- The re-organization of disciplines -- Applied research at CASS-Jiang Zemin's ascendance -- Democratic centralism and bi-directional elections -- Part IV: reforms at CASS -- PART V. Shaping Cass and the World Under Li Tieying and After -- Chapter Fourteen. Li Tieying and the Role of CASS in State Policy-Making -- The reign of Li Tieying: appreciating CASS (1998-2003) -- Role and leadership assignments to CASS -- Li Tieying and the restructuring of CASS -- The information flow between CASS and the CC of the CCP -- Streamlining CASS research and the reorganization of major research items -- Working conditions at CASS -- Reforms at CASS under Li Tieying -- Chapter Fifteen. Changing the System from Within? -- Financial and political ties since the 1980s -- Academic reforms and monitored freedom -- Criteria for grouping intellectuals -- Academic guidelines, ceremony and ritual.

Authority, dissidence and symbolism under Jiang Zemin -- Changing academic life (and the world) from within -- Appendix I. CASS Research Institutes -- Appendix II. Chronology of the Founding of the Xuebu and CASS Institutes -- Appendix III. Economic Research Institutes and Their Research Divisions -- Appendix IV. The History of the Leadership System of CASS -- Appendix V. Selection of commemorations held at CASS from 1992 to 1997 -- Appendix VI. Ritualized Occasions -- Bibliography: Chinese -- Bibliography: European Languages -- Chinese Glossary of Recurrent Concepts and Key Phrases -- Index.