Marginalization of Childless Elderly Men and Welfare Provision

A study in a North China village

Bibliographic Data

ID12422158
AuthorsWeiguo Zhang (0000-0002-2157-2177), William Zhang (0000-0002-8850-5235, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume16
Issue51
Pages275-293
Publication date2007-05-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary China (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1067-0564 • E-ISSN: 1469-9400
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10670560701194541
OpenAlexW2098347907
LanguageEN
Citations received7

Rural reforms have benefited certain groups and marginalized others, creating great disparity in rural China. The welfare situation of childless elderly men, mostly never married, remains little known and largely unnoticed. This study enquires preliminarily into the question of how childless elderly men cope with the changing economic, political, and institutional contexts brought about by the market reforms that started in 1978. With the adoption of a political economy approach to the analysis of welfare resources allocation, and an institutional approach to the analysis of changes in welfare institutions and individual lives, this paper looks into various roles of the state, community, and family in welfare production. The in-depth village study suggests that though the state, community, and family are expected to care for the needy, neither formal nor informal assistance from the community or extended families to the childless elderly is necessarily sufficient, automatic, or forthcoming. Collective land and housing plots seem to be the only resources that the childless elderly have to exchange for care

China · Economic growth · Economics · Elderly Care · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Medicine · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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