Supporting the most vulnerable, including children and the elderly, is one of the main forms of caring labour for social reproduction. The moral and economic choices individuals and families make every day when dealing with children, as well as old age, have broad implications for the global political economy of care. 

These decisions unfold within a context where populations in wealthy economies are ageing, while birth rates are rising in many postcolonial societies. This demographic divergence contributes to the (re)production and entrenchment of gendered and racialised hierarchies. 

Yet, children and the elderly are not only passive subjects or caring. They often become active carers and central agents of social reproduction labour. Today’s episode will centre on this more agential role of vulnerable populations by exploring the contribution of grandparents’ caring role to the formal labour economy. 

Concepts discussed: social reproduction, care labour, urban/rural divide. 

Hosted by: Dr Frank Maracchione, SOAS University of London. 

Speakers: Dr Yingzi Shen recently completed her PhD at the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield. Her PhD research looked at the intergenerational cooperation in childcare in rural-to-urban migrant families in China and how it is affected by rural migrants' limited access to welfare and social inequalities. Her research interests lie broadly in the nexus between care and migration, as well as ageing, family studies, and rural-urban inequalities. 

Reading list: 

Chan, K. W., Cai, F., Wan, G., & Wang, M. (2019) Urbanization with Chinese characteristics: the Hukou system and migration. London: Routledge. 

Liang, J., Huang, W., & He, Y. (2024) Report on the cost of shengyu in China 2024. Yuwa Population Research. Available at: https://www.yuwa.org.cn/article/reports?id=2.

Lin, Q. and Mao, J. (2022) ‘“A new job after retirement”: Negotiating grandparenting and intergenerational relationships in urban China’, China perspectives, (1), pp. 47–56. doi: 10.4000/chinaperspectives.13520

Liu, J. (2023) ‘Filial piety, love or money? Foundation of old-age support in urban China’, Journal of Ageing Studies, 64, pp. 101104–101104. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101104.

Liu, J. Y. (2017) ‘Intimacy and Intergenerational Relations in Rural China’, Sociology (Oxford), 51(5), pp. 1034–1049. doi:10.1177/0038038516639505.

National Health and Family Planning Commission. (2018) Report on the development of China’s migration population 2018. Beijing: China Population Publishing House.

Shen, Y. (2025) Caring through intergenerational support: Childcare practices in rural-to-urban migrant families in China. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.

Tronto, J. C. (1993) Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for An Ethic of Care. Georgetown: Taylor & Francis Group. 

Tronto, J. C. (2013) Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice. New York, NY: New York University Press.

World Health Organisation. ‘Ageing and health in China’. Available at: https://www.who.int/china/health-topics/ageing.

This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Frank Maracchione with support from Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.