Defining Closeness:Patterns and Causes of Kinship Family Interactions in Urban China
Is the closeness of relationships between nuclear families and their kinship families of the same generation in urban China nowadays based more on the constraints of blood ties or rational reciprocity?Introducing the perspective of occupational stratification,we found that exchange of work resources,economic support,exchange of favors and gifts,mutual aid in labor and emotional support have gradually become the main types of interactions among urban kinship families,while normative interactions based on blood ties no longer differentiate the closeness of family relationships well.It is shown that the more similar the occupational types of families and the closer their social class,the more intimate the interaction between families,which essentially indicates that social relations based on the principle of reciprocity of benefits are embedded in the blood-based kinship network.This proves that the impact of family modernization on kinship relations is not limited to the possibility of strengthening or weakening.Rather,it has made it possible,on the basis of kinship networks,to differentiate between different kinship families in the sense of social interaction that goes beyond blood ties.
万方数据
维普
