制度缝隙与能动策略：结构化理论视角下超龄女工“熬社保”的实践逻辑

Institutional Gaps and Agency-Driven Resistance: The Practical Logic of “Endurance-Driven Social Security Struggles” among Over-Aged Female Workers from the Perspective of Giddens’ Structuration Theory

摘要: 本研究聚焦于中国超龄女性劳动者为满足15年社保缴费年限而持续工作的“熬社保”现象。研究运用吉登斯的结构化理论，通过对上海市郊区20名轻工业女工的深度访谈，旨在揭示“制度约束–能动实践–意外后果”的互构逻辑。研究发现，制度结构通过户籍壁垒、退休年龄与缴费年限错配等“规则缺失”和家庭资源代际倾斜等“资源剥夺”形成约束。作为应对，超龄女工采取了“代际契约重构”(以育儿劳动置换子女代缴社保)和“身体策略”(如自我剥削、年龄伪装)等能动实践。然而，这种制度与行动的互构最终催生了非预期的负面后果：非正规就业加剧了社保断缴风险，身体透支抵消了养老积累，形成了“越努力越脆弱”的悖论。研究揭示了现行社会保障制度在覆盖非标准就业群体时存在的结构性张力，并探讨了其中的年龄政治运作机制。

Abstract: Amid China’s aging population and evolving social security reforms, over-aged female workers navigate institutional age thresholds and survival needs through “endurance-driven social security struggles”. Drawing on Giddens’ structuration theory and interviews with 20 female workers in Shanghai’s suburban light industries, this study reveals the interplay of institutional gaps and agency-driven resistance. Key findings include: (1) Structural constraints stem from regulatory gaps (e.g., hukou-based pension barriers, policy mismatches in retirement age/contribution years) and resource deprivation (material decline and intergenerational resource tilting), forging a punitive “institutional age” marker; (2) Workers adopt tactical agency: laborizing intergenerational contracts (exchanging childcare for offspring-funded contributions) and bodily strategies (self-exploitation/age concealment) in informal employment; (3) These practices paradoxically reproduce vulnerabilities—precarious jobs heighten contribution gaps, physical exhaustion erodes pensions, and intergenerational tensions escalate—triggering a “greater effort, deeper vulnerability” paradox. The study advances “institutional age” as an analytical lens, urging reforms to reconcile bureaucratic age thresholds with life-course justice.