20世纪下半叶,人口老龄化是发达国家人口发展的一大趋势。相应地,老年人生活照料成为学术界和公众关注的重要话题。欧洲是世界上老龄化程度最高的地区,也是福利国家的发源地,老年人生活照料的理论研究和实践走在世界的前列。总体而言,欧洲老年人生活照料表现出以下六大特点:照料方式的正式化,照料服务的商品化,照料行为的去家庭化,照料主体的去性别化,照料主体的多元化,照料服务付费方式的多样化。未来30年,我国将是世界上人口老龄化速度最快的国家之一,老年照料具有潜在危机。研究欧洲老年人生活照料,对于我国老年照料的设计有着重要的启示意义。
Population aging is a major trend in population development in the developed countries since the second half of the 20th century, so the elderly care is one of the most important academic topics and public concern. Europe is the region with the highest degree of aging, and also the birthplace of the welfare state, so the theory and practice of elderly care have been walking in the forefront of the world. The elderly care in Eu- rope have six characteristics: formalization, commoditization, de-familization, de-gendering, diversification of service providers, and variety of payment for care work. In the next 30 years, the situation of population aging will be accelerated and be deepened seriously in China, where there is potential crisis in the elderly care. Study on the experience of elderly care in Europe will be benefit for China for designing modem elderly care system.