Society's support for the aged in China: a cultural perspective

Abstract

本文关注福利文化对社会养老制度和实践的影响，从文化视角审视中国现代社会养老项目的发展，揭示了老年社会福利模式与特定社会政策制定者对社会福利概念的理解和传统福利文化之间的关系。限定主义的价值观和公民权利意识的缺失阻碍着中国老年社会福利模式从剩余性到制度性的转变，抑制了社会福利在缩小老年群体内阶层差异方面的作用，促使了福利资源分配的不公。尽管人口老龄化和福利国家的文化扩散正在促使中国老年社会福利呈多元化发展趋势，多元福利体系的最终建立还有赖于社会公众和政策制定者对个人和国家关系的重新解读。 This article is concerned with the influence of welfare culture on society's old age support institutions and practice. It examines the development of old age support programs in contemporary China from a cultural perspective in an attempt to reveal the interaction between social welfare patterns for the elderly and social policy‐makers' conception of social welfare and traditional social welfare culture. What stands in the way of the transition of Chinese social welfare for the elderly from a residual to an institutional model is a value system founded on restrictions and lack of awareness of civil rights. These factors limit the role of social welfare in narrowing the gaps between different social strata in the aged population and lead to inequitable welfare resource distribution. Although an aging population and the diffusion of welfare state culture are pushing the Chinese social welfare system toward diversified development, its final establishment still depends on a reexamination by the public and policy‐makers of the relationship between individual citizens and the state.