Abstract:

The five papers included in this special issue of the Chinese Journal of Sociology come from a collaborative research project called 'Life course and family dynamics in a comparative perspective' (for details, see http://csr.pku.edu.cn/EN/ AcademicResearch/station/jianjie/). This project involves researchers from China, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. They are generously supported by the research councils of the four countries: the National Science Foundation of China (award number: 71461137001), the German Science Foundation (award number: NA164/19-1), the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (award number: 467-14-152) and the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (award numbers: ES/L015927/1 and ES/L015927/2).

Broadly speaking, each of the four teams focuses on one stage of the life course: the Chinese team is concerned with child development; the German team examines the transition to adulthood; the UK team investigates economic inequality in the prime working age; and the Dutch team looks at family relationships, health and support at older age.

Despite the different foci, the four teams are united in their analytical approach. We all use large-scale, high-quality and nationally representative data to address our research questions from a comparative angle. The main data sets that serve as the anchors of our research are the China Family Panel Survey, the (German) Socio-economic Panel, the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study and (the UK) Understanding Society. Where appropriate, we also bring in other comparative cases (most importantly, the USA) and/or other data sources, including the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the German Family Panel and the European Social Surveys.

To summarise very briefly the five papers included here, in the first paper, Djundeva, Dykstra and Emery set the scene by giving a wide-ranging overview of the basic demographic trends and family patterns in the four countries. In the second paper, Lyu, Li and Xie examine the determinants of academic achievement in China, Germany and the USA. They show that parental education plays a much bigger role in Germany and the USA than in China. As regards macro socialstructural factors, such as region and the rural-urban contrast, their impact on children's test scores is much larger in China than in Germany or the USA.

In the third paper, Fulda, Nauck and Ren use both census and survey data to compare the timing of first marriage and parenthood in China, Germany and the USA, and relate these patterns to the educational experience of young people in the three countries. In the fourth paper, Gruijters, Chan and Ermisch are concerned with intergenerational educational mobility. They show that the strength of the association between parents’ and children's educational attainment has stayed broadly the same over cohorts in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. In China, however, the chance of educational mobility has declined steadily and significantly across cohorts.

Finally, Emery, Dykstra and Djundeva use data collected in the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to look at the determinants of intergenerational coresidence in Europe and in China. They reveal not only strong differences between China and Europe, but also important differences within China and within Europe too.Finally, Emery, Dykstra and Djundeva use data collected in the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to look at the determinants of intergenerational coresidence in Europe and in China. They reveal not only strong differences between China and Europe, but also important differences within China and within Europe too.

The five papers in this special issue are just a part of the outputs of our collaborative work. Other publications can be found on the project website. Finally, I should add that our collaborative research project involves a large number of Chinese scholars, many of whom are early career researchers. Apart from those who are co-authors of the papers included here, they include Jingwei Hu, Zheng Mu, Hongwei Xu, Qi Xu, Jia Yu, Chunni Zhang and Xiaobo Zhang. We treasure our interactions with them and are very grateful to them for guiding us through the intricacies of the China Family Panel Survey.