Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Households' Livelihood Strategy in a Relation-Based Society: Evidence from Northeast China.

Zhe Sun,Xinyu Wang,Shuyue Wang,Zherui Wan,Hongyin Zhang,Liang Zhao

doi:10.3390/ijerph18041747

Abstract

Although China is experiencing a transition from a relation-based society to a rule-based society, relationships among acquaintances still play an important role in resource allocation, such as the allocation of policy resources. This is particularly true in rural China, where targeted poverty alleviation is prevalent and a relation-based social structure still dominates. However, it is still unknown how relationships affect the livelihood strategy of households in rural China and how poverty alleviation policies plays a role between them. Therefore, this paper embeds poverty alleviation into the relation-based society and explores how households respond to the policy in this specific context. Using grounded theory research method and the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) framework, this paper contains in-depth interviews and field observations from three poverty-stricken villages in Northeast China. The results show that relationships have a significant impact on the households’ livelihood strategy. In other words, the households’ livelihood strategy is embedded in the relation-based society. The types of relationships induce households to choose maintained or developmental type livelihood strategies, while relationships influence how the poverty alleviation policies affect the livelihood strategy. This study is not only an extension of the SLA in the research context, but also provides a significant perspective for enriching the long-term mechanism of targeted poverty alleviation by building a theoretical model of the relationships between a relation-based society, targeted poverty alleviation and the livelihood strategies of households.

Highlights

In 2013, the central leadership led by Chairman Xi Jinping put forward the idea of “helping the poor with precision”, which is termed a targeted poverty alleviation policy, calling on local governments to make better use of poverty alleviation resources and take targeted measures to ensure that assistance reaches povertystricken villages and households [3]
Based on the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA), this paper explores the role of the specific context of relationbased society and targeted poverty alleviation policies in households’ choice of livelihood strategies in rural areas of Northeast China
When the livelihood condition of geographic relations is undesirable, it has a high possibility to lead to the short-term maintained type livelihood strategy of households

Summary

Introduction

Poverty is a global problem facing the world today. As the largest developing country in the world, China has explored an anti-poverty route with Chinese characteristics in the long-term practice of poverty alleviation [1]. China has achieved a leap from universal poverty to a general well-off state, which has made great contributions to the world’s poverty reduction [2]. In 2013, the central leadership led by Chairman Xi Jinping put forward the idea of “helping the poor with precision”, which is termed a targeted poverty alleviation policy, calling on local governments to make better use of poverty alleviation resources and take targeted measures to ensure that assistance reaches povertystricken villages and households [3].

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Conclusion