Chapter 5: Urban and Rural Residents' Social Support

Along with the advancement of globalization, industrialization, and marketing, various social risks are also substantially increasing; these risks include not only traditional social risks, such as aging, disease, disability, death, as well as various natural disasters, but also unemployment, poverty, injury on the job, and safety violations in industry. New social risks, such as financial crises, stock market crashes, environmental pollution, food safety, and extreme urbanization, have also become a problem (Li Peilin, 2006). These risks have gone beyond individual and family resistance in many situations and, therefore, exterior support and policy assistance are required. This exterior support and assistance comes in three forms: system security provided by the government; diverse paid services provided by the market; and “social support” other than the national safeguards and market services. This generalized “social support” may include family support, support from relatives and friends, social cooperation, community support, and support from social organizations, all of which are important to construct an effective social support network and to help individuals and families avoid the aforementioned social risks…