A Study on Elderly Poverty from a Life Course Perspective

Abstract

Based on a series of biographical interviews with 23 people aged 60-82 in 2008,this article reports an in-depth study of life trajectories among low-income elder people in Beijing. The findings show that a variety of trajectory patterns exhibit among those elders. With three directions in old age (improving,level and declining) and patterns over lifespan (smooth and fluctuating),their trajectories are categorized into six types. Case studies are presented to illustrate each type of trajectories. Elder’s life course paradigm is used in this study to analyze elder people’s life stories. The main conclusions include:(1) although all of the poor elders belong to 'the poor' in current stage,they are not homogenous group since they have diverse processes of poverty creation and maintenance; (2) the causes of old age poverty are mainly rooted in previous early-life experience rather than factors linked to late-life stage; (3) in Chinese context,the unexpected life events created under abrupt social transitions accounted much for the fluctuating of elderly people’s poverty trajectories; (4) five types of relations were found between life events and old age poverty.

本研究基于2008年4-8月間對23名北京市貧困老人進行的生命史訪談,采用生命歷程范式的視角探析了貧困老人的生命發展軌跡,并區分出6種不同的軌跡類型:整體起落/晚年上升;整體起落/晚年水平;整體起落/晚年下降;整體平穩/晚年上升;整體平穩/晚年水平;整體平穩/晚年下降。本研究得出的主要結論為:1.貧困老年人是異質性很高的群體,他們有著大為迥異的貧困形成與變動過程,并且,即便已至晚年,他們的貧困狀況仍然按照各自的軌跡特征繼續發生變動;2.貧困老人陷入貧困的促動力大多根植在晚年之前的生活經歷中,與晚年相聯結的因素很大程度上是作為維持貧困狀況使之難以扭轉的維持力而非根源性的促動力,并且,在此基礎上,我們對貧困老人的'突發性貧困'與'延續性貧困'進行了區分;3.與建國后急遽的社會變遷相聯結的非預期生命事件對于老人生命歷程中貧困地位的流動型態具有非常強的詮釋力;4.本文梳理出5種生命事件與晚年貧困的關系脈絡。