把家庭找回來：臺灣、香港家庭之政治經濟學分析

Bringing the Family Back in: The Political Economy of Family in Taiwan and Hong Kong

本文主要從政治經濟學的角度，討論臺灣、香港的家庭部門從80年代到現在，因少子女化、人口老化、長壽化、移民化與女性角色的轉變，所產生的「照顧危機」，引發兩地照顧責任在家庭、市場和政府三者重分配的爭論。本文認為在討論照顧責任在領域間移轉前，需將家庭帶回歷史脈絡，將家庭並列於政府與市場，勾勒家庭鑲嵌於政治經濟的位置，以克服與超越家庭位置在社會科學區隔化下，產生「家庭缺位」的遺憾，在忽略家庭位置存在政治經濟性下，政策處方不過是強化既有的體制，反導致問題的惡化。為此，本文將家庭置於政治經濟學的理論，從兩地歷史發展脈絡中，發現家庭在社會發展與變遷的歷程，一直具有政治經濟雙核心的本質，既是生產單位、也是穩定秩序的基地。「家庭被掏空」在各地有不同的意義，反映家庭部門隨著人口變遷、產業轉型和女性角色多重變動，國家和市場的交互作用導致家庭部門之脆弱，如何發展與脈絡高度鑲嵌的政策，實在先需要透視家庭、市場和國家存在的複雜與動態的三角關係，方能在促進家庭能量、鞏固家庭福祉下，把人類初級連帶的重要性找回來。

The purpose of this paper is taking the perspective of political economy to explore the family in Taiwan and Hong Kong from the 1980s to the present days, with a special focus on the divisions of care responsibilities among family, market and state, that are heated by the care crisis of low fertility, demographic ageing, extended life expectancy and the change of female roles. The authors argue that we should bring the family back in the historical context and embed it in a political economic structure. Due to traditional disciples of social sciences, the family has been long a missing part in the studies of political science, economics, and political economy, while studies on family also neglect the characteristics of political economy. As we trace back and embed the family in these areas from the process of social development, we clearly find family's dual kinds of nature of economic production and political stability. Following the reorganization of family, market and state imposed by demographic shift, industrial transformation and changing female roles, we will need an analysis of political economy that is helpful to examine the family in the dynamic and complicated historical and structural contexts. Then, the importance of family, as the primary group of human beings, can be rediscovered and recognized for fostering the capabilities and wellbeings of the family.