Innovation and Sustainable Development Pathways of Elderly Education Models in Rural China—A Qualitative Dual-Case Study from Fujian Province
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Acing the superimposed challenge of aging and rural hollowing out, the rural education for the elderly in China urgently needs to explore innovative paths. This paper focuses on Jinyi Village and Shaxian County in Fujian province, and compares two typical models through mixed research methods (124 questionnaires / 27 interviews) to reveal their operation mechanism and sustainable dilemma. The study found that cultural embeddness is the core variable of model differentiation: Jinyi Village activates folk capital by relying on the village elite network, and Shaxian County built a standardized service system through policy transmission, which verified the decisive role of local knowledge transformation efficiency. Spatial reproduction drives multi-dimensional value spillover, and the transformation of idle places not only constructs social networks, but also promotes economic effects. The paper proposes the dynamic coupling framework of "demand-capital-policy", advocates the construction of asset-light operation and policy pilot zone, and provides a path reference for solving the transformation of governance efficiency under resource constraints. This paper breaks through the traditional resource input paradigm, reconstructs the theoretical interpretation system of education for the aged from the perspective of spatial production, and boosts the rural revitalization and the modernization of governance for the aged.
Source: Social Flourishing
Authors: Maoyi Chen, Ziyi Zheng, Yikai Mao, Shuxian Liu, Jiangrui Chen, Xiaoran Sarah Zhang
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4410077048