ABSTRACT
The basic concept of this probabilistic model is that a given situation does not determine careers and reduce people to a state in which they passively endure their unemployment or poverty. On the contrary, in objectively similar situations people develop different strategies to face their problems. Therefore, if poverty research defines an unfortunate situation only as the end of a descending career it might miss the point, as the situation can also be a transient period and the beginning of various careers. Of course, the coping strategies employed by households are not necessarily successful: some households will find a pathway to success, others will not overcome their difficulties, and yet others will only have provisional results. Among the various welfare institutions, intermediary organizations and kinship networks are of particular value, all the more so since social capital is overwhelmingly associated with these institutions. 15
To sum up, social welfare and the process of welfare production have to be sociologically reconstructed at macro-, meso-and micro-levels. The concept of welfare pluralism may contribute to an analysis by stressing the various welfare institutions, each with its own rationale and resources. Welfare has to be produced, normally at the household level, and its aim is the satisfaction of individual material, psychological and social needs (well-being). Different approaches, such as the concept of social capital or coping theories, conceptualize agency and the process of decision-making relating to the macro-and the micro-level. The proposed multilevel frame will be used in the subsequent section of this article to generate some research questions on welfare in rural China.
