Professor Xiang Yunhua, director of the Social Security Research Center of Wuhan University, and his doctoral candidate Xu Nuo published a paper entitled "China's Mutual Pension from the Perspective of "Individual Familyization" in the fourth issue of the CSSCI journal "Learning and Practice" in 2024. The full text is now forwarded and shared with readers.

【author】Xiang Yunhua,Xu Nuo

【Published journals】《学习与实践》

【Journal level】CSSCI

【Publication time】Issue 4,2024

【Abstract】Under the fact of "individual familyization", China's mutual pension action is actually based on "de-familyization", that is, mutual assistance and exchange between different families. Based on the qualitative study of structural duality, it is found that under the joint action of family rights and obligations and the rule of reciprocity of social favors, the three generations of family members and their resources are embedded in mutual care for the elderly, resulting in a cascading effect and structural effect, and realizing the welfare self-production of mutual care for the elderly. In the cascading effect, the main reciprocity induces continuous reciprocity and demonstration reciprocity, which promotes the extension of mutual care for the elderly from two families to multiple families. In the structural effect, the intimate intervention of elderly care in the family promotes the "quasi-familyization" of mutual aid relationship, which not only triggers the change of family resources and the adjustment of family relationship, but also triggers the sharing of social networks inside and outside the family, which has the dual effect of empowerment and bonding on the production of mutual pension benefits. In addition, family blessing will change the position of individuals in the mutual care network, and increase energy will produce an aggregation and organization effect, and energy reduction will produce a decline or even marginalization effect.

【Keywords】mutual assistance for the elderly, familyization, de-familyization

【Funds】Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, "Supporting the Weak: Research on the Policy System of Employment Assistance for Difficult Groups" (Project No.: 22JJD630015)