Dimensions of Care Giving and Eldercare Technology in an Aging Society

老龄化社会中护理和老年护理技术的维度

• 批准号: 2110838
• 负责人: Suma Ikeuchi
• 金额: $ 7.58万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-15 至 2023-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2110838&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dimensions; Care; Giving; Eldercare; Technology

The current speed and scale of global aging is unprecedented in human history. By 2050, the proportion of those aged 65 or older within the estimated world population will be nearly 17%, doubling the ratio in 2015 and tripling the percentage back in 1975. Having so many live so long is a fundamentally new phenomenon to humankind. Consequently, we need to reevaluate the infrastructures of eldercare and healthcare. Such a reevaluation would benefit immensely from empirical studies that compare different caregiving options. This project will yield wide-ranging qualitative data by investigating the rapidly shifting landscape of eldercare choices in aging society. Specifically, it focuses on (1) non-familial caregivers while juxtaposing them with (2) the traditional familial care and (3) the emerging care technology. The main questions are: How can the care work provided by non-familial caregivers alter the boundaries of familial, sociological, and national kinship? How do different parties involved in eldercare understand the ramifications of care labor, vis-a-vis other options such as familial care and care provided through artificial intelligence? Not only will the findings of this research be important for the social scientific theories of care, they will also have broader policy implications by advancing our knowledge about the challenges facing social security in the aging world today.The investigator will conduct the research in Japan, the country with the oldest population in the world that is projected to retain this position through at least 2050. Japan is the most appropriate site for this type of study that compares different care options because it has been experimenting with migrant caregivers and care technology ever since the rapid demographic changes destabilized the provision of familial care. For the collection of data pertaining to foreign caregivers, the methods will consist of participant observation, interviews, and demographic surveys. The investigator will conduct additional interviews with family caretakers and carry out participant observation and archival research about care technology to ensure the comparative axis of the methodology. Data analysis will employ the grounded theory approach to find out the culturally significant changes in the views about kinship and eldercare. The existing works on aging and care tend to study different care options separately, in particular familial care and paid care. This study contributes to the anthropological theories of eldercare and kinship by adopting a comparative approach that probes how foreign care workers fare in relation to family caregivers and technological automation of care. The holistic approach to the shifting landscape of eldercare can address the topical and analytical limitations of the current scholarship. Moreover, due to the prominent trend of global population aging today, the findings from the pioneering aging of context of Japan can be extrapolated to countless other countries that face similar demographic challenges, importantly the United States.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

当前全球老龄化的速度和规模在人类历史上是前所未有的。到2050年，65岁及以上人口占世界总人口的比例将接近17%，是2015年的两倍，是1975年的三倍。对人类来说，这么多人活得这么久是一个全新的现象。因此，我们需要重新评估老年人护理和医疗保健的基础设施。这种重新评估将极大地受益于比较不同护理选择的实证研究。该项目将通过调查老龄化社会中老年人护理选择的快速变化的景观，产生广泛的定性数据。具体而言，它侧重于(1)非家庭照顾者，并将其与(2)传统的家庭照顾和(3)新兴的照顾技术并置。主要问题是：非家庭照护者提供的照护工作如何改变家庭、社会和国家亲属关系的界限？与家庭护理和人工智能提供的护理等其他选择相比，老年人护理的不同参与方如何理解护理劳动的后果？这项研究的发现不仅对护理的社会科学理论很重要，而且通过提高我们对当今老龄化世界面临的社会保障挑战的认识，它们还将具有更广泛的政策意义。研究者将在日本进行研究，日本是世界上人口老龄化最严重的国家，预计至少到2050年将保持这一地位。日本是进行这类比较不同护理选择的研究的最合适的地点，因为自从人口结构的快速变化破坏了家庭护理的提供以来，日本一直在尝试移民护理人员和护理技术。关于外籍照护者的数据收集，方法将包括参与观察、访谈和人口调查。研究者将对家庭照顾者进行额外的访谈，并开展关于护理技术的参与者观察和档案研究，以确保方法的比较轴。数据分析将采用扎根理论的方法来找出亲属关系和养老观念的文化显著变化。现有的老龄化与养老研究倾向于分别研究不同的养老选择，尤其是家庭养老和有偿养老。本研究采用比较的方法，探讨外籍照护工作者与家庭照护者和照护技术自动化的关系，为老年照护与亲属关系的人类学理论做出贡献。整体的方法，以改变景观的老年人护理可以解决当前的学术专题和分析的局限性。此外，由于当今全球人口老龄化趋势突出，日本开创性老龄化背景的研究结果可以外推到无数其他面临类似人口挑战的国家，尤其是美国。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。