Care Regimes and De-/Familialization in Asian Seven Societies

As the first paper of the panel based on an international joint research project on care in Asia conducted by Asian scholars from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, this paper introduces the research framework, social background information for comparison and major outcomes.

Care is one of key social issues today. It is usually claimed that population ageing, increases in women’s employment, changes in family life and welfare retrenchment are the reasons behind people’s growing concern on care. However, these are phenomena observed in western countries. The social conditions in Asian societies are different. This paper first clarifies social background of growing concerns on care particularly in Asian societies. Then the paper reviews studies on care in Asia which were accumulated in the past decade.

Then the paper introduces theoretical frameworks on care, such as “care diamond,” and discusses how to modify the frameworks to apply for Asian cases. The concepts of familialism, familialization, de-familialization and re-familialization are defined and discussed carefully.

The 2000s observed various significant changes in care regimes in all the societies under consideration. The major findings are;

1) The role of the state is increasing in most societies. However, the state is playing its role not always in a direct way, but more often in indirect ways through promoting market and community. Not only de-familialization policies but also familialization policies are implemented in the Asian region.

2) The role of the market is increasing dramatically in most societies.

3) People’s expectation for the community is increasing in many societies.

4) Socialist countries are showing different paths from other countries. The paths of socialist countries in Asia demonstrate commonalities and differences in comparison to the experience of post-socialist countries in Europe.