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Table 1 Self-construal and state-individual relationships under two modes of social association

From: "Selective firming" of the self-boundary: social movements and the reshaping of the state-individual relationship during China’s transformation: A case study of a collective litigation caused by demolition in City B

Social structure

Characteristics of individualism

Characteristics of self-boundary

State-individual relationship

Differential mode of associations in China

Ensemble individualism

Permeability: elasticity and flexibility

Individual absorbed by the state and subordinate to the state

Group mode of associations in the West

Self-contained individualism

Firming: closed and fixed

Individual independent from the state and equal with the state