The Study Of Operational Capacity Of Elderly Self-organizations In Urban Communities

Community elderly self-organizations, with the advantages of high survival rate, strong vitality and large stock of social capital, have risen in the time background of active aging, the political background of the transformation of government functions and the social background of community autonomy. Most of them appeared in the form of "clique". Their development is of great significance to alleviate the urban growing aging problem and build a harmonious society.The author used qualitative research method, through the literature research, the depth interview and the participation observation to collect the first hand research data and the data. In the paper, operational capability is divided into three dimensions, which are resource integration capability, independent management ability and network construction ability. Taking three elderly self-organizations in Shanghai H Community as an example, the paper studied how they integrate the material resources, human resources, organizational resources and social capital, how to undertake self-service, self-education and self-coordination, and how to build up the relationship with the outside world. Under the perspective of social symbiosis theory, the author found in the external symbiosis system, the relationship between community elderly self-organizations and government is a kind of "bidirectional embedding", and the relationship between them and similar organizations as well as enterprises is "weak embedding". Moreover, the embedding process is greatly influenced by community elite network of personal relationships. Because of the weakness of network construction ability, they fall into dilemmas of resources, fields and talents. The internal symbiotic system is composed of leader, teacher and general members. The high integration of community talents and social capital can promote their independent management. Thus the author concluded the logical relation of the three abilities:the ability of network construction is the basic ability, which decides the ability to integrate resources; resources integration ability is the core ability, which decides self-management ability; self-management ability is the essential ability, which determines the ability of network construction. The three capacities form a closed circulatory system, thus generating the operational capacity.Finally, the author thought the improvement of operation ability must take the "upper and lower binding" path. On the one hand, community elderly self-organizations shall grow upward and strengthen the "two-way embedding" with the government, in order to obtain administrative legitimacy and political legitimacy. On the other hand, they shall grow downward and actively embed in the community, to gain legal legitimacy by enhancing social legitimacy.the initiative is embedded in the society, through the enhancement of social legitimacy to fight for legal legitimacy. The width and depth of the "downward growth" determines the spatial size of the upward growth. The "two-way embedded in the state and society" path avoids over-reliance on the state or society, thus promoting the positive interaction between state and society.