Care Sociology / 照护社会学

Care sociology enters the wiki through 147.再谈日本医疗与照护行业之我曾在北海道的医院当护士, where [[QiongQiong|琼琼]] describes reading [[UenoChizuko|上野千鹤子]]’s 《照护社会学》 and later helping move the Chinese translation process forward. In the episode, the book is not treated as abstract theory only; it gives language to what 琼琼 had seen as a nurse and care worker.

The concept links household labor, hospital nursing, long-term care, disability rights, and aging into one field. It asks who provides care, who decides what care counts as good, whose labor is recognized, and how the cared-for person remains a subject rather than an object of family, expert, or institutional management.

Key Claims

• Care should be analyzed as social organization, not only as private virtue or individual kindness.
• The cared-for person’s own voice is central, which connects care sociology to Subject-Led Care.
• Care labor has economic and gendered dimensions because unpaid or underpaid labor can become invisible until the system depends on it.
• Hospital, home, community, insurance, and welfare systems all shape whether care is dignified or coercive.

Connections

• [[UenoChizuko|上野千鹤子]] and [[QiongQiong|琼琼]] - author and translator/source speaker.
• Care Socialization / 照护社会化 - policy and social-division branch.
• Patient Dignity In Daily Care / 日常照护中的患者尊严 and Subject-Led Care - ethics branch.
• Japanese No-Family-Attendant Care / 日本无家属陪护, Medical Social Work Discharge Coordination / 医疗社工与出院衔接, and Community Integrated Care / 社区综合照护 - healthcare practice branch.
• Elder Care State Capacity, Aging-In-Place Support System / 居家养老支持系统, and Long-Term Care Insurance Planning - aging and service-capacity branch.