从“孤老救济”到“孝亲代理”:养老机构的角色转型与专业兴起

From"Relief for the Lonely Elderly"to"Filial Piety Agency":Senior Care Institutions and their Transformative Roles and Rising Professionalization

本文从历时性的维度呈现了当代中国养老机构社会角色与道德形象的变迁。作为国家和集体兴办的社会福利单位,养老机构一度以孤寡老人为主要收容对象,构成了家庭本位伦理秩序下的例外空间。在人口老龄化和照料资源匮乏的背景下,养老机构逐渐面向社会大众提供商品化、专业化的照护服务,成为家庭成员的“孝亲代理”。在这一过程中,养老机构不仅重新嵌入家庭秩序和孝道文化,并且逐渐形成一个全新的专业领域:机构的管理和服务被纳入规范性的制度框架;养老护理员成为国家认可的正式职业,建立起专门的知识和技能体系;机构养老愈益获得文化价值上的正当性,为大众提供了新的照护关系图景和老年生活想象。

This paper presents the changes of social roles and moral images of contemporary Chinese senior care institutions from a dia-chronic perspective.As a social welfare unit set up by the state or funds of collectives,an old-age care institution once took the lonely elderly as the main targeting group.It became a space outside the family in an ethical order based on families.Under the background of aging population and lack of care resources,old-age care institutions gradually provide commercial and professional care services for the public and become""filial piety agents"for family members.In the process,the old-age care institutions not only became re-embedded in the family-based order and filial piety culture,but also developed overtime a brand-new professional field.The management and service of the institutions are brought into the normative institutional framework.Care workers for the aged have become formal occupations recog-nized by the state and developed specialized knowledge and skill sets.The institutional care is increasingly accepted in the culture as it presents the public with a new picture of care relationship and an imagination of old-age life.