Human Care Innovation SectionJapanese Culture
Bridging the humanities, clinical sites of care, and gerontology: Constructing “humanistic gerontology”
However, the future super-aging society seems to call for the perspective of humanities as well, including attitudes toward aging and approaches to death. Based on this sense of the issue, the present project aims to develop a new academic field called “humanistic gerontology” that bridges the humanities, clinical sites of care, and gerontology.
Gerontology is an academic field which studies various issues associated with the super-aging society. In the past, gerontology has focused on natural sciences (medicine, nursing, biology, etc.) and social sciences (social welfare, psychology, law, economics, etc.), with little connection with the humanities.
However, the future super-aging society seems to call for the perspective of humanities as well, including attitudes toward aging and approaches to death. Based on this sense of the issue, the present project aims to develop a new academic field called “humanistic gerontology”that bridges the humanities, clinical sites of care, and gerontology.
This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP26310105. : Basic Research B (Generative Research Fields: Neo Gerontology) and the research period is from April of 2014 to March of 2020. The research results were published as a collection of papers entitled Aging: Humanities, Clinical Sites of Care, and Gerontology (Polano Shuppan, 2019). Presently, along with the above-mentioned “interdisciplinary study of “aging” in Japanese society,” we are working on a project aimed at publishing a collection of papers entitled Six Questions regarding Aging, End-of-life, and Death, which examines modern death and life with readers, including questions such as “Is a long life a good thing?”and“Is dying a burden for others?”.
Introduction of Researcher
Human Care Innovation Section Japanese Culture
Professor MOTOMURA Masafumi