Economic Reforms and Fertility Behaviour: A Study of a Northern Chinese Village

by Zhang,Weiguo

• ISBN13: 9781873410493
• ISBN10: 1873410492
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-25
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

Based on an intensive fieldwork in a southern Hebei village in northern China (1992/3), the author takes an institutional approach and focuses on the way deliberate Chinese state policies driven by new economic and social agendas since the late 1970s have impacted on marriage, family relations and consequently on the way fertility trends have been adversely affected; the study is also very much concerned with the human dimension and the way in which such social and economic changes are perceived and applied in a rural community. The research presented in this study goes a long way to unravelling the puzzle concerning the reasons for a very rapid decline in Chinese fertility rates, contrasting sharply with a very different fertility transition within western cultures.

Table of Contents

List of Contents	vii
List of Tables and Figures	ix
Acknowledgements	xiii
Preface	xv
Introduction	1	(2)
Focus and Objectives of the Present Study	3	(4)
Research Methodology and Fieldwork	7	(5)
Economy, Institutions and Fertility: Theoretical Explorations	12	(15)
Fertility Studies: Searching for an Institutional Approach	13	(6)
Institutions, Institutional Change and Human Behaviour	19	(4)
Economy, Institutions and Fertility	23	(4)
Chinese Reforms and Fertility: Macro Context	27	(18)
Transition from Planned Economy to Market Economy: Institutional Reforms and Rural Development	27	(9)
Evolution of Population Policies	36	(2)
Chinese Population and Its Fertility: National Trend and Regional Variations	38	(7)
The County: Reforms, Family Planning, Economy and Population	45	(16)
Reform Processes	45	(3)
Evolution of Family Planning Programmes	48	(3)
Economic Change and Population Dynamics	51	(7)
Disparities Among Townships and Villages	58	(3)
The Village: Institutional Reforms and Social Change	61	(26)
General Profile of the Village	62	(3)
Reform Processes	65	(2)
Structural Changes	67	(4)
Income and Inequality	71	(4)
Village Cadres	75	(3)
Changes in Social Welfare: Education, Health and Social Relief	78	(9)
Dynamics of Marriage Change	87	(30)
Changing Marriage Patterns	88	(7)
Changing Meaning of Marriage	95	(7)
Marriage Finance and Marital Transfers of Brideprice and Dowry	102	(8)
Decision-making Concerning Marriage	110	(7)
The Changing Nature of Family Relations	117	(26)
Post-Reform Family and Household: Smaller in Size and Simpler in Structure	119	(4)
Early Household Division in the Reform Period	123	(6)
Division of Labour: Nangong Nunong, Women in Agriculture and Men in Non-agriculture	129	(4)
Intra- and Inter-family Relations	133	(10)
Inter-generational Obligations and Fertility Motivation	143	(25)
Changing Roles of Children Within the Family: Pre-reform and Post-reform Period	143	(11)
Reshaped Fertility Motivations	154	(14)
Implementation of State Family Planning Programmes	168	(31)
Pre-Reform and Post-Reform Family Planning: Old Styles and New Characteristics	169	(7)
Mediation of Formal Family Planning Policies	176	(7)
The 1993 Family Planning Campaigns	183	(16)
Fertility, Contraception and Adoption	199	(31)
Changing Fertility Patterns	200	(2)
Fertility Decision Outputs: Start Childbearing, Birth Intervals and Stop Childbearing	202	(16)
Contraception, Abortion and Sterilization	218	(4)
Adoption of Children	222	(8)
Conclusion	230	(11)
Overview of Findings	231	(5)
Rethinking Economy, Institutions and Fertility in Rural China	236	(5)
Appendixes	241	(16)
I A Note on Fieldwork	243	(10)
II Some Problems in Official Statistics	253	(4)
Bibliography	257	(18)
Index	275