Kinship, Women's Labor & China's Economic Performance in the 17th-21st Centuries

梅丽莎·布朗博士(明尼苏达大学明尼苏达人口中心)将对家庭层面的亲属关系和妇女劳动如何影响宏观经济进行研究。以前的社会科学研究侧重于妇女工作的整体经济价值，而不是这种价值是如何通过亲属关系和家务管理产生的。通过关注通过血缘关系组织起来的家庭层面的劳动关系，以及它们如何与更大的经济相互作用和随着时间的推移而变化，布朗将能够阐明过去和现在经济发展的一个先前隐藏的维度，然后可以用来促进经济发展并使其更加平等化。由于中国拥有丰富详细的历史经济和社会数据，研究人员将对过去四个世纪进行跨省比较。以前对中国经济的分析，包括中国的全球崛起，都忽略了亲属关系和性别，尽管它们在工资、家庭贡献、财产所有权和遗产方面都很重要。通过对中国的关注，可以思考在四种不同的历史条件下，以亲属为基础的女性劳动和收入管理的相互作用：前现代中国的内卷化，20世纪中国的工业主义和后来的毛主义，以及今天的全球资本主义。通过比较结果，布朗可以研究家庭和亲属群体相对于外部力量的独立性；社会形态(伴随这些国家的一系列政治和法律安排)对亲属关系的影响；以及与不同时期相关的不同经济行为和结果。这项研究的发现将有助于发展经济史的尺度间社会科学理论。这项研究也将对负责促进经济发展和妇女赋权的机构有用。该项目将用于学生的培训。

Dr. Melissa Brown (Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota) will undertake research on how the relationship between kinship and women's labor at the household level affects the macro economy. Previous social science research has focused on the economic value of women's work overall rather than the how that value is produced through kinship and household management. By attending to household-level labor relations, organized through kinship, and how they interact with the larger economy and change over time, Brown will be able to elucidate a previously hidden dimension of past and present economic development, which can then be used to foster economic development and to make it more egalitarian.Because a wealth of detailed historical economic and social data are available for China, the researcher will undertake a cross-provincial comparison over the past four centuries. Previous analyses of the Chinese economy, including China's global rise, have ignored kinship and gender despite their importance in wages, household contributions, property ownership, and inheritance. Focusing on China allows consideration of the interaction of kin-based management of women's labor and earnings under four distinct sets of historical conditions: involution in premodern China, industrialism and later Maoism in 20th-century China, and global capitalism today. By comparing outcomes, Brown can examine the relative autonomy of the family and kin group from external forces; the effects of social formations (the array of political and legal arrangements that accompany these states) on kinship; and different economic behaviors and outcomes associated with the different periods. Findings from this research will contribute to developing inter-scalar social science theory of economic history. The research also will be useful to agencies charged with promoting economic development and women's empowerment. The project will asssit in the training of students.