Life Course and Family Dynamics in a Comparative Perspective

中国和欧洲都在发生重大的社会变革。这些变化给这两个地区带来了一些共同的挑战，包括经济不平等加剧、移民加剧、区域不平衡和人口老龄化。这些社会变化对个人和家庭的生命历程有何影响？中国和欧洲有着不同的历史、社会制度和文化传统。它们是否为本国公民带来了不同的风险、脆弱性和机遇？中国和欧洲的学者、政策制定者和其他利益相关者在制定应对共同挑战的政策时，可以从彼此的经验中学到什么？在这个项目中，我们使用最新的、高质量的、大规模的、具有全国代表性的家庭调查数据，探讨中国、德国、荷兰和英国的个人和家庭的经验。此外，由于这些调查的所有受访者都接受了多年的跟踪调查，并多次接受采访，我们对他们的经历如何随着时间的推移而变化有了更深入的了解。我们专注于人们在人生的四个阶段所面临的关键问题：（1）儿童发展和学校教育，（2）向成年的过渡，（3）中年的安全和福祉，及（4）代际支持及晚年幸福。此项目将产生协调一致和完整记录的数据集，并将存入国际数据档案库。这将成为希望了解中国和欧洲不断变化的人口和家庭动态的学者和政策制定者的关键国际数据资源。此外，一些博士生和博士后学者将在该项目中接受培训。这些年轻学者以及项目的资深学者将密切合作，促进中国和欧洲在理解人口变化研究方面的合作。

Important social changes are taking place in both China and Europe. They present the two regions with some commonchallenges, including rising economic inequality, heightened migration, regional imbalance and population ageing.What are the implications of these social changes for the life course of individuals and families? China and Europe dohave different histories, social institutions and cultural traditions. Do they create different kinds of risks, vulnerabilities andopportunities for their citizens? What can Chinese and European scholars, policy-makers and other stakeholders learnfrom each other's experiences as they formulate policy responses to the common challenges confronting them.In this project, we use recent, high quality, large-scale and nationally representative household survey data to explore theexperience of individuals and families in China, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Moreover, because all respondentsof these surveys have been followed through the years and were interviewed multiple times, we gain a deeper insight intohow their experiences change over time.We focus on the key issues that confront people at four stages of their life: (1) child development and schooling, (2)transition to adulthood, (3) security and well-being in middle life, and (4) intergenerational support and well-being in laterlife.This project will produce harmonised and fully documented data sets which will be deposited in an international dataarchive. This will become a key international data resource for scholars and policy-makers who wish to understand thechanging population and family dynamics in China and Europe.In addition, a number of doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars will receive training in this project. These juniorscholar as well as the senior scholars of the project will work closely together, fostering Chinese and Europeancollaboration in research on understanding population change.