Understanding the Institutional Logics of China’s Community-Based Intervention for Older People

Community-based policies have gained global popularity, signaling a paradigm shift from individual responsibility for healthy aging to an approach involving community-based intervention. Learning from Western experience, China has also experimented with this form of intervention. It has policy interventions aimed at providing community-based facilities and services that enable older people to age in place. However, the institutional foundations of Chinese communities differ greatly from those in Western countries. Implementing a critical realist case study focusing on a community-based program in Beijing, this study aims to examine the institutional logics that contribute toward a contextually appropriate community-based policy intervention in China. We identified three institutional logics. First, the Confucian moral obligation of benevolence requires authorities to provide social welfare for vulnerable citizens. Second, China’s community-based interventions are state-led territorialized provisions prioritizing communities rather than individuals. Third, community-based social policies are subordinate to economic growth objectives. This study contributes to the understanding of contextually appropriate community-based policy interventions in China.