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 琼琼 describes reading 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
- 上野千鹤子 and 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.