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Handbook of Welfare in China

Handbook of Welfare in China

Handbooks of Research on Contemporary China series
Edited by Beatriz Carrillo, University of Sydney, Australia and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, Johanna Hood, Roskilde University, Denmark and Paul Kadetz, Drew University, US and University College London, UK
The Handbook is a timely compilation dedicated to exploring a rare diversity of perspectives and content on the development, successes, reforms and challenges within China’s contemporary welfare system. It showcases an extensive introduction and 20 original chapters by leading and emerging area specialists who explore a century of welfare provision from the Nationalist era, up to and concentrating on economic reform and marketisation (1978 to the present). Organised around five key concerns (social security and welfare; emerging issues and actors; gaps; future challenges) chapters draw on original case-based research from diverse disciplines and perspectives, engage existing literature and further key debates.

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Extent: c 464 pp
Hardback Price: $270.00 Web: $243.00
Publication Date: July 2017
ISBN: 978 1 78347 273 4
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  • Asian Studies
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This Handbook is a timely compilation dedicated to exploring a rare diversity of perspectives and content on the development, successes, reforms and challenges within China’s contemporary welfare system. It showcases an extensive introduction and 20 original chapters by leading and emerging area specialists who explore a century of welfare provision from the Nationalist era, up to and concentrating on economic reform and marketisation (1978 to the present).

Organised around five key concerns (social security and welfare; emerging issues and actors, including gender issues, NGOs, and philanthropy; gaps; and future challenges, such as population ageing and environmental pressures) chapters draw on original case-based research from diverse disciplines and perspectives, engage existing literature and further key debates. Key historical insights into welfare provision in the Chinese context serve as a starting point with the remaining chapters combining a review of the literature with original case studies. The book offers novel empirical research and includes topics often not discussed in the literature on welfare in China, including: mental health, highly educated rural-to-urban migrants, NGOs as welfare providers, China’s overseas welfare aid, environmental challenges and welfare, amongst others.

This comprehensive and multidisciplinary Handbook will be of immense value to researchers and scholars in the fields of China Studies, social policy, the welfare state, politics and related areas. Accessible to a non-specialist audience interested in China’s welfare development and welfare states more broadly, it will also serve as a useful resource for undergraduates.

Critical Acclaim

‘This is a needed book, bracing in its diversity and scope. As a collection of authoritative studies of welfare in China, it is a handbook in the best sense of the word: China researchers, and others concerned with global health and social inequality, will want to keep it ready to hand, to consult as a reservoir of up-to-date facts, carefully analysed. All of these scholars challenge the liberal term “welfare” through the experience of Chinese socialism, even as they make the category useful for comparative and critical research.’
– Judith Farquhar, University of Chicago, US

‘Handbook of Welfare in China is an impressive book, written by scholars from a range of disciplines. Covering everything from public welfare provision under the Qing and leprosy control in the collective era, to contemporary urban housing welfare policies and Sino-African health diplomacy, it makes an important contribution to our understanding of the historical development of modern China’s welfare regime. It will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in welfare in China for many years to come.’
– Tamara Jacka, The Australian National University

‘In this book, Carrillo, Hood and Kadetz have assembled a distinguished cast of academics to examine social welfare in China. The result is a sweeping review that covers Chinese welfare through various historical eras, across differing models of welfare provision and from a range of perspectives. Evolving aspects of welfare provision by the central state, by local states, by employers, by NGOs, by individual philanthropists and by families are all considered. The authors also make useful comparisons across historical divides and between China and other countries, including both developed economies in Europe and other developing countries. While the authors diverge in terms of their degree of optimism or pessimism towards Chinese welfare regimes, they all manage to illuminate aspects of its provision. The book will become a starting point for all interested in this topic.’
– Andrew Kipnis, The Australian National University

Contributors

Contributors Include: E. Baum, M. Blaxland, O. Bruun, B. Carrillo, J. Chen, S. Cook, X.-y. Dong, T.D. DuBois, M.W. Frazier, K.R. Fisher, R. Hasmath, T. Hesketh, J. Hood, J.Y.J. Hsu, H. Jia, E. Jeffreys, P.I. Kadetz, B. Li, Y. Li, J. Liu, S.-h. Liu, Y. Liu, A.W. MacDonald, A. Saich, X. Shang, D.J. Solinger, K. Suda, Y. Zeng, J. Zhao, Z. Zhao

Contents

Contents:

Introduction
Beatriz Carrillo, Johanna Hood and Paul I. Kadetz

Part I Welfare in the Chinese context: an historical perspective
1. Welfare provision in China from late empire to the People’s Republic
Thomas David DuBois

2. Leprosy welfare: entrenched stigma and policy formation
Shao-hua Liu

3. Chinese psychiatric care in historical perspective
Emily Baum

Part II The Chinese welfare system in reform era China
4. The politics of welfare policy: towards social citizenship?
Anthony Saich

5. Health inequalities, medical insurances and medical financial assistance
Zhongwei Zhao, Hongbo Jia and Jiaying Zhao

6. Housing welfare policies in urban China
Bingqin Li

7. The minimum livelihood guarantee: social assistance (just to) stave off starvation
Dorothy J. Solinger

8. Geographical stratification and the provision of education in contemporary China
Ye Liu

9. The social welfare of ethnic minorities: rationale, impact and outcomes
Reza Hasmath and Andrew W. MacDonald

Part III Gaps in the welfare system
10. Rural-to-urban migrants: access to welfare services and integration into urban life
Juan Chen

11. Urban welfare and social justice: individual perspectives of highly-educated rural-to-urban migrants in the city of Guangzhou
Kimiko Suda

12. Disability and welfare services
Karen R. Fisher, Xiaoyuan Shang and Megan Blaxland

13. Gender, welfare and the economy of care in reform era China: How the welfare system shapes women’s opportunities and gender equality
Sarah Cook and Xiao-Yuan Dong

14. Ageing in rural China: State, family and gendered care responsibilities
Jieyu Liu

Part IV Engaging non-State welfare providers domestically and abroad
15. Chinese NGOs as welfare providers: challenges and constraints
Jennifer Y.J. Hsu and Reza Hasmath

16. Entrepreneurs, celebrities and charitable foundations: elite philanthropy in China
Elaine Jeffreys

17. Outsourcing China’s welfare: Assessing ‘sustainable’ Sino-African health diplomacy
Paul I. Kadetz and Johanna Hood

Part V Future challenges of welfare provision
18. Climate, environment and State-society relations in the mobilisation for welfare in China
Ole Bruun

19. The impacts of the universal two-child policy and strategies to face the challenges of population ageing
Yi Zeng and Therese Hesketh

20. Stemming the tide of demographic transformation through social inclusion: Can universal pension rights help finance an ageing population?
Mark W. Frazier and Yimin Li

Index