Life Course and Family Dynamics in a Comparative Perspective

中国和欧洲都在发生重大社会变革。这给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、地区失衡和人口老龄化。这些社会变化对个人和家庭的生命历程有什么影响？中国和欧洲有着不同的历史、社会制度和文化传统。它们是否会给公民带来不同类型的风险、脆弱性和机会？中欧学者、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来探索中国、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被跟踪了多年，并接受了多次采访，我们更深入地了解了他们的经历是如何随着时间的推移而变化的。我们关注人们在人生的四个阶段所面临的关键问题：(1)儿童发展和上学；(2)向成年过渡；(3)中年的安全和幸福；(4)晚年的代际支持和幸福。这个项目将产生统一的和有充分文件记录的数据集，这些数据集将存入一个国际数据档案。对于希望了解中国和欧洲人口和家庭动态变化的学者和决策者来说，这将成为一个重要的国际数据资源。此外，本项目还将培养一批博士生和博士后学者。这些初级学者和该项目的高级学者将密切合作，促进中欧在了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 common challenges, 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 do have different histories, social institutions and cultural traditions. Do they create different kinds of risks, vulnerabilities and opportunities for their citizens? What can Chinese and European scholars, policy-makers and other stakeholders learn from 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 the experience of individuals and families in China, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Moreover, because all respondents of these surveys have been followed through the years and were interviewed multiple times, we gain a deeper insight into how 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 later life. This project will produce harmonised and fully documented data sets which will be deposited in an international data archive. This will become a key international data resource for scholars and policy-makers who wish to understand the changing 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 junior scholar as well as the senior scholars of the project will work closely together, fostering Chinese and European collaboration in research on understanding population change.