Prof. Shen Ke of Fudan University elected as a Young Affiliate of the World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS) in 2022
Shen Ke, professor of the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Fudan University, was elected as Chinese Young Affiliate of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Developing Countries in 2022, the only one from China this year.
As a young demographer, Shen Ke has been devoted to the issue of aging populations for more than a decade. His comparative studies reveal the similarities and differences in the economic consequences of aging faced by different countries at different stages of demographic transition, identify the inter-generational distribution patterns of dependency burdens and economic resources in aging societies, exploring the long-term and short-term effects of different types of fertility policies on fertility rates, providing a scientific basis for a national strategy to actively address population aging.
As she believed, “the value of academic research lies not only in innovation and breakthroughs, but also in social care and social responsibility.” In the future, she will continue her research with both academic innovation and theoretical considerations of policy, while also integrating global vision and local characteristics with a focus on more scientific issues related to aging societies.
Shen Ke’s devotion to academic research is revealed in her own words, “It is never too late for academic research.”
In 2012, Shen Ke attended a training course on National Transfer Account (NTA) organized by the United Nations Population Fund. The NTA methodology connects the population age structure with the economic life cycle, providing a new analytical framework for the study of the economic behaviors of people of different ages, including production, consumption, savings, transfer payment, etc.
Subsequently, Shen Ke and her research team got started by applying and expanding on the NTA methodology in the research of aging in China, carrying out a series of research, such as the accurate measurement of the social support burden of aging, the fairness of the distribution of social and economic resources of aging, and the multidimensional impact of aging on economic development. Today, the NTA Global Program has engaged more than 90 member countries from all continents and the NTA methodology has become an important tool to study the interaction between population aging and economic development from the perspective of transnational comparison. In 2019, Shen Ke published her first monograph on the systematic application of NTA methodology in China with the title: Population Aging, Intergenerational Distribution and Financial Burden.
In the meanwhile, Shen Ke has been engaging in many microscopic studies of the elderly, such as the digital literacy and digital divide of the elderly in the era of internet-based mobile applications, the quality of inter-generational relations in multi-generational families, social support and mental health of the elderly, etc. Most of her previous studies exploring the rules and mechanisms were based on a quantitative analysis of both surveys and statistical data. However, in recent years, she has begun to conduct more field investigations on the lives of the elderly to gain insights into individual differences. She believed that the micro perspective should still be stressed, and that’s why her work is dedicated to a philosophy of understanding populations in the academic context. In her own words, “Research should go beyond the paper.”
