Family Support for Old People in Rural China

In China the family is still the major welfare provider for old people in rural areas. Although the implementation of this role has varied significantly, in different historical periods, owing to social and economic changes in the rural environment, the core functions of the family have remained the same, that is, the provision of welfare for dependants, particularly for the aged. In the more traditional China, providing care for the aged was indeed assumed to be a paramount function of the family. Whereas, following the founding of the PRC in 1949, the welfare function of the family was reduced, as a result of the collectivization of the rural economy, which meant a part of family responsibilities being shared by collective organizations. However, after more than twenty years' experience of agricultural collectivization, China embarked on a course of further rural economic reform in the early 1980s, replacing the commune system with one of private production based on the family unit. As a result, rural welfare responsibilities were shifted back from the commune to the family, which became solely responsible for providing support for its dependent members. This paper attempts to set out the real situation with regard to family support for rural old people in China. The first section offers a brief introduction to the declining family status of rural old people as a consequence of socio-economic change. The second section reviews the implications of rural economic reform for the (declining) status of old people with regard to family support, focusing on patterns of rural old age dependency and the changing roles of family caregivers. Lastly, cases of family support disputes and community responses are presented, drawing on findings from fieldwork conducted by the author between 1995 and 1996 in three rural localities in China.     

二十世纪五十至七十年代两次中西部开发对内地城市化的影响

新中国在20世纪50年代至70年代对中西部地区进行了两次大规模的开发。一次是“一五”计划中以156项工程为核心,对东北和中西部地区的开发;另一次则是在三线建设期间大规模的对中西部地区的开发。两次开发投入了大量的人力、物力和财力,在内陆地区建立了许多重要的工业企业,改变了千百年来我国内地几乎没有工业特别是重工业的历史,大大推动了我国内地的工业化进程。不仅对内地的经济建设起了巨大的推动作用,而且也对其城市化发展起了很大的促进作用。     

Still working for the man? Women's employment experiences in Australia since 1950

This article tackles the question of what is the ‘good life’ for women in employment in Australia through an examination of national legislation and policies. Since 1950 what has been seen as the good life has changed dramatically. The article outlines three phases of change: in the 1950s and 1960s men were regarded as the wage earners and women the homemakers, with women barred from some jobs and paid less than men; in the 1970s legislation and equal pay cases removed overt discrimination against women; from the mid 1980s the complexity of achieving equality for women at work was recognised through equal opportunity legislation, work and family policies and equal pay inquiries. In 2010 the ‘good life’ for women is having the same opportunities and outcomes in employment as men. While policy provisions support this, the reality of achieving this is difficult. So in 2010 many women are still ‘working for the man’ in the context that most managers are men.     

我国农村传统养老模式与照料者心理的相关性分析——来自弋阳县的调查数据

随着我国人口老龄化程度的逐渐加剧,人口结构正处在急剧的转型中,尤其在农村,由于传统居家养老模式功能的不断弱化和农村劳动力不断的迁移,导致农村养老照料问题存在极大的问题。本研究将从老人照料者的心理状况入手,分析有关照料着的心理与养老质量之间存在的相关关系,样本来自于江西省上饶市弋阳县三县岭乡的调查研究,研究提出相关系数统计,分析了农村传统养老模式与照料者的相关性因素,从而得出农村传统养老模式照料者的心理健康影响因素及其对照料质量的影响,并就相关影响因素提出了相应的措施对策。     

“甩干”机制：中国乡村司法的运行逻辑

由于中国乡村社会在日常生活中充满了诸多伦理性、道德性的内容,致使司法体制与乡村现实之间存在着深深的抵牾。本文借由一起诉讼揭示了乡村司法的运行逻辑--“甩干”机制。基层法院在处理案件时会按照形式理性的要求,以洁净化、纯粹化为目标,甩掉道德、习惯等诸多非法律的元素,实现对案件事实的重新建构,以一种生硬、执拗的方式对案件进行权威性的裁决。“甩干”机制源自民事诉讼程序中关于案件“受理”与“审理”的特殊制度设计,同时也是基于法律形式化要求的无奈之举,更在某种程度上体现了中国式司法的“无知之幕”特色。“甩干”机制揭示了乡村社会中法律的实际运行状态及内在张力。     

农业“去集体化”过程中的乡村治理与底层政治——对一段乡村历史的分层解读

本文采用底层史观的方法对中国农村去集体化进程进行了新的解读和分析。通过对江淮地区某村庄口述历史材料和文字档案材料的并置后发现,对这一事件的历史讲述存在不同层次的叙述文本。乡村共同体的隐藏文本揭示了集体化末期基层村庄的行动能力仍然是权宜而分散的,在很大程度上仍然仰仗外部局势的变化。然而在上层精英的叙述中,群众及其需要却被赋予附加的重要意义。进一步研究发现,主流历史的叙述方式与转型时期国家治理的合法性需要密切相关。     

现阶段农村青年婚姻观念的嬗变—以安徽省安庆市A县B镇为例

婚姻观念影响着人们的婚姻家庭生活。改革开放三十年来,由于各方面原因的冲击,使得人们的婚姻观念特别是青年的婚姻观念从传统向现代过渡,从封闭转向开放,从一元向多元的转变。本文以A县B镇农村青年为例,探求农村青年的婚姻观念中的择偶观、贞操观、婚俗观、生育观以及男女平等观念的嬗变。     

Trends in Social Security in East Africa: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda

As elsewhere in the world and in Africa in particular, social security in the member countries of the East African Community (Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, and Uganda) has long been provided through voluntary assistance under the traditional extended family system. Later, and more specifically after independence in the early 1960s, when the region had a major increase in the number of employees in the formal sector — both public and private — who were mainly located in urban centres, formal social security schemes started to gain recognition among employed workers. Thus over the years, the urban population became increasingly detached from rural communities where the traditional extended family system was most effective. In addition, their general standards of living rose to such levels that if they ceased to earn employment income for one reason or another their livelihood could not be sustained through the extended family system. The above social security development trends have resulted even today in societies examining and determining ways to improve social protection beyond the formal sector so as to ensure arrangements are put in place for a large part of the working population to be provided with social security insurance during their working life and after retirement.     

有限机会的公平分配：中国农民子女市民化的水平与模式

本文将农民、农民工以及已经获得非农户籍的“新市民”的“农民子女”作为分析对象,以农民子女跨越城乡二元系统的市民化进程来透视中国社会系统的开放性与社会分层流动机制。基于CGSS调查数据等资料的分析表明,改革开放以来,中国农民的职业非农化水平快速提高,但身份市民化机会长期保持不变,两者之间的断裂日益扩大。这种断裂不仅表现在水平上,也表现在分配机制上。职业非农化的途径日益多元化,教育的作用相对弱化,家庭背景有着相对重要的作用。而户籍非农化（身份市民化）因升学之外的传统途径不断收缩,教育成为影响户籍非农化的主要因素,从而保持了有限的户籍非农化机会在农民子女间分配的公平性。     

家庭经营的成本核算与经营决策：以白洋淀塑料加工户为例

在关于家庭经营的研究当中,有两个最经典的理论模型,一个是恰亚诺夫的“家庭农场模型”,一个是贝克尔的“家庭生产函数”。本文通过对河北白洋淀淀村塑料加工行业加工户进行成本核算和经营决策行为逻辑的研究发现,对于工业化过程中的家庭经营户来讲,虽然他们生产的是一般性“市场商品”,但是由于生产要素市场的不完善和家庭经营独特的组织方式,使得这些加工户的生产决策与消费决策不但是密不可分的,而且受到了与家庭生命周期相关的家庭结构的影响。家庭结构不但在很大程度上决定了一个家庭劳动力、住房、资本等生产要素的组合结构,而且影响了家庭生产与消费的不同组合模式,这一点不但影响了一个家庭在生产经营中的成本核算逻辑,而且影响了他们进行产业选择的经营决策。     

改革进程中农民的创造及其对新农村建设的启示

我国农村改革以来,中国农民先后推出了家庭承包责任制、乡镇企业、专业户、小城镇、农民工、私营企业、股份合作制、村民自治等九大创造,为中国农村改革和农村发展做出了巨大贡献。改革中农民的这些创造对新农村建设具有重要的启示价值,在新农村建设中,应进一步完善这些创造,继续尊重农民的首创精神,并注重制度创新。     

Home Ownership, Affordability, and Mothers' Changing Work and Family Roles

Objective . Elaborating on conventional explanations for rapid employment growth of married mothers of preschoolers, I propose that pursuit of home ownership contributed to this trend differently in different decades since 1950. Methods . Measuring husbands' income in terms of mortgage qualification and using logistic regression analysis of pooled Current Population Survey data to estimate trends standardized for compositional change, I compare hypothetical with observed trends since 1970. Results . Declining ability of husbands' income to qualify for mortgages and rising educational attainment of mothers explains the post-1970 accelerated employment growth for preschoolers' mothers. By the 1980s, other influences have greater relative effects on young mothers' employment. Conclusion . Home ownership contributed to slower growth in preschoolers' mothers' employment through the 1950s and 1960s, raising standard-of-living expectations. Declining affordability in the 1970s inspired even more rapid growth. Pursuit of prescribed standards of living has increasingly motivated families to embrace dual-earner work and family arrangements.     

The dynamics of economic globalization and political development on the welfare state in South Korea

The Korean welfare system has grown over the past 40 years from a limited and selective developmental system into a relatively comprehensive universal system. What explains this dynamic is the interplay between South Korea's global economic integration and its political transition from authoritarian rule to democratic governance. While the corporatist consensus under the authoritarian government limited social welfare to an instrument to promote economic growth and industrialization, the social democratic corporatist consensus under economic globalization has enabled the democratic regime to introduce a relatively universal welfare system.     

中国农村工业化的发展阶段及特征

中国农村工业化从19世纪的第一次浪潮到现在大体分为四个发展阶段,呈现出不同的特点:1.解放前的中国近代农村工业化,发展较快,且具有爱国主义的特质。2.从建国到改革开放前的社会主义建设初期阶段,由于认识上的偏差、资金严重短缺及长期的赶超战略,农村工业化进程缓慢。3.从改革开放到社会主义市场经济体制目标确立前,政府决策决定着农村工业化的走向,发展速度快,但效益低下。4.社会主义市场经济目标确立至今,外商投资促进了农村工业化的发展,基本实现农村工业私有化,乡镇企业的作用增大,地区差距日益显著。     

中国传统孝文化在新农村和谐社会建设中的作用探讨

建设社会主义新农村是新时期中国现代化建设的一项重大战略举措,也是建设社会主义和谐社会的一项重要内容。如何在中国传统文化积淀深厚的农村社会环境中,实施社会主义新农村建设,实现“生产发展、生活宽裕、乡风文明、村容整洁、管理民主”的和谐新农村,是一个非常值得探讨的问题。本文通过对中国传统孝文化在中国农村社会结构网络中的特殊纽带作用的考察,并结合部分农村现实情况,探讨了传统孝文化在新农村和谐社会建设中值得挖掘与发挥的积极作用和功效。     

“乡土”与超越“乡土”：费孝通与雷德斐尔德的文明社会研究

20世纪20年代末至50年代初,人类学学科领域从传统的部落社会研究扩展到对文明社会的研究,费孝通与雷德斐尔德两位人类学家为这一转变做出了重要的开拓性贡献。本文梳理了这一过程的学术史,认为是这一时期人类学与社会学的结合导致两人不约而同发现“乡土”社会。两人都对文明社会研究进行了理论与方法上的拓展：在处理社区多样性方面,费孝通使用类型比较法,雷德斐尔德则提出了乡村-都市连续统模式;而在纵向社会结构方面,两人都提出类似的城乡一体的整体社会结构模式。本文描述了他们两人之间的互动与相互影响,并对二者的差异性进行了评述。     

从农村家庭变迁看农村老人自杀现象

近些年,我国农村老年人的自杀率有上升的势头。本文从家庭结构、家庭规模、家庭关系等方面分析了农村家庭变迁及其对农村老人自杀的影响,并结合杜尔克姆的社会整合理论认为,农村老人自杀增多与由于转型期农村家庭的各种变化导致家庭凝聚力下降从而使传统家庭具有的自杀免疫能力下降有关。     

动员式改革:中国农村改革理论与经验的再探讨

新制度经济学并不足以解释20世纪70年代末至80年代初的中国农村改革。这场改革具有浓厚的动员色彩,是一次动员式改革。这次动员式改革既不同于以群众运动为代表的组织化动员,也不同于市场转型背景下的准组织化动员。该动员式改革采取了物质刺激和精神鼓励相结合的形式,并有两个显著的特点：改革过程中动员与制度建设相互作用;国家不能完全控制动员的影响。中国农村市场化的启动是作为动员式改革的非意图性后果出现的。     

The Middle Class in Russia

The problem of overcoming the significant social differences between town and country is primarily a problem of socialist transformation of the village, a problem of raising various aspects of rural life to urban standards, whether this pertains to improving the basis of production in materials and equipment, the forms of property, the gradual transformation of agricultural into industrial labor, elevation of the level of organization of rural work forces and voluntary organizations and of the level of people's education and culture, or the degree of civilization of their daily lives.     

构建以农民为本位的农村文化

农村文化是一个自有其存在价值的相对独立系统,但在我国现代化发展过程中,农村文化却长期成为现代城市文化的附庸。农村文化建设应以农民为本位,立足于乡村社会的历史和现实,通过挖掘农村文化的固有价值,使适合农村生活特点,适合农民消费水平的文化在凝聚整合农村力量、焕发农民精神方面发挥重要作用。为此,应加强文化基础设施建设;全方位发展农村教育;培育农民文化协会;保护乡村文化多样性。