ABSTRACT
Based in Qingtianese families’ care circulation analysis, reciprocity appears to be a sort of engine that enables family functioning, in which each single piece is necessary – and designed – to keep going. Nevertheless, care as a resource that circulates within families’ networks – and a wider field – is not homogeneous or constant and when looking at care from a life-course perspective, life transitions are key. Based on the fieldwork accounts, this chapter presents three different forms of time-related reciprocity that can be identified within Qingtianese transnational families: practical, normative and offset reciprocity.
