Individual Strategies And Social Consequences Of Rural Marriage Risk

With the continuous development of economic and social transformation and modernization,rural China is undergoing tremendous changes,especially in the field of marriage and family.The increasingly marital instability of young people in rural areas has become the consensus of the public and academia.However,how does the instability manifest in the real life of the individual?How does the macro economic and social changes in population structure and the change of the values become major factors that affect individual marriage and family life?On the whole,how does social structure change,individual values,and action strategies interact with each other,and jointly shape marriage risks at the individual and the social level?This study takes an less developed county named D county in the central plains for example.Through the root research methods,the article tries to make answer to these questions,which helps to understand what the current rural society is experiencing.The article includes six chapters and the main body is divided into three parts:The first part(Chapter 2)introduces and analyzes the core concept of"Guojiaren".Under the framework of concept,"getting married","living life" and"sense of belonging" constitute three dimensions of the concept,which represents the whole set of life ethics and social logic about maintaining the marriage and family life in the D county.The three main dimensions run through the whole life of the individual.Furthermore,there is a widespread feeling of living hard in the D county,which has become a common portrayal of the local rural marriage and family life.The second part(Chapter 3&4)attempts to reveal the specific reasons and characters of living hard by introducing some divorce stories and individual strategies.Through the investigation of rural divorces in the D county,risks of current objective rural marriage arise,which involve intense marriage squeeze,defamiliarization in interpersonal relationship,the economic instability of the individual and increasing social temptation.On the macro level,structural factors such as marriage squeeze and rural migrant economy constitute the external risk of marriage.At the micro level,the lack of individual human capital and the change of marriage cognition and emotional needs constitute the potential internal risk of marriage.The rise of rural divorce reflects the increasing risk of modern marriage.To reduce or to avoid those risks,various of individual strategies have been taken,such as raising the dowry,not yield,paying attention to self-realization.Besides,appropriate concessions and expressing gratitude are regarded as process strategies in order to ensure the harmony and stability of marriage and family relations.Through these individualized strategies,marriage is used as a personal resource rather than a potential risk.The third part(Chapter 5)analyzes theoretical story behind the concept in details.A final important theoretical framework is summarized with three characteristics which means having difficulties in getting married and maintaining the family and achieving understanding in family.Specifically,in order to reduce or to avoid the risk in marriage situation,the individual has to take a series of rational strategies which eventually lead to an unintended social consequences and aggravate marriage risks.