As its miracle growth continues seemingly unabated into a fourth decade, China's emergence as a global economic and political power is accepted as inevitable. China is changing and the world is changing in response. Yet such radical transformation has also brought challenges that China must face if it is to continue its upward trajectory. Some of problems that are thought to threaten China's reforms are in fact not as serious as many interpreters claim —only growing pains of development. Some have already been solved. Other widely noted problems truly are serious, and still others may loom on the horizon. Growing Pains seeks to present an accurate view —as opposed to an optimistic or pessimistic one —of China's current reforms. Sorting the evidence of the problems' actual severity, the contributors consider hot-button issues —privatization and markets; governance; and questions of health care, environmental degradation, and social inequality —and consider the likelihood of near-term solutions.

《国家建设与政府行为》分三个单元——即国家建设与治理模式、国家建设与资源配置、国家建设与社会管理，对中国的近现代的国家治理与政府行为进行了探讨。全书的十一篇专题论文均在经验资料分析、理论思路开拓、概念工具形成方面做出努力，试图在积累学术知识方面做出贡献。每个单元还邀请了在学术上颇有见地的学者进行了深入的评论。《国家建设与政府行为》的研究对关注中国国家建设与政府行为研究的社会学、经济学、政治学、管理学者来说，将有所助益。

本书中，周雪光教授以组织研究的诸种学术问题为导向，系统阐述了当今海外学术界影响至深的诸学术流派，如制度主义学派、交易成本学派、网络分析学派等对若干基本的组织现象的研究和看法，梳理了经济学、社会学和心理学在组织问题上思想交锋的焦点所在，并结合海内外大量组织现象的实例分析，指出了组织社会学研究的努力方向，体现出作者深厚的学术功力和犀利的学术眼光，读来令人茅塞顿开。