老人福祉 政策開發을 爲한 硏究方向

A Gerontological Theory and Research Guide for Welfare Policy Development

This paper con rns itself with some theoretical issues and research directions in gerontology which are relevant for welfare policy development for the elderly in Korea. It is argued here that we need a sound theoretical framework for development of any welfare policy by which the nature and cause of the underlying problem can be identified. In the first part of this paper several sociological theories which are useful for identification of the nature and cause of aging as a social problem are discussed. However, these theories, namely functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism have a somewhat limited perspective for the solution of aging problems. Thus, the writer proposes a theoretical framework, namely the "societal guidance theory" developed by Amitai Etzioni, to be utilized for the development of an aging policy in Korea. In the second part of this article some research directions which are relevant for the development of welfare policy for the elderly. These are based on the aforementioned theoretic model.