臨終與死亡在晚期現代社會裡不只是個人事件，而是社會事件。這說明了兩者並非發生在真空狀態下，而是發生在特定的社會與文化脈絡裡。自1993年以降臺灣邁入高齡化社會，正式躋身世界高齡化社會的老人國之列，現今臺灣社會不只存活人口呈現結構老化走勢，死亡在生命歷程初期階段明顯下降，同時傾向集中在人生晚期年齡階段，整體死亡結構發展趨勢愈見明顯老化。故而，本研究計畫的研究問題是「在臺灣高齡化社會的發展歷史中，人們的死亡類型、死亡地點和死亡場共同構築成哪些不同階段的死亡結構？過去的死亡結構特質所相應關聯的死亡態度和死亡意義仍然在高齡化社會發揮哪些影響？產生哪些新作用？」。本研究企圖批判公共衛生學與心理學的解釋傳統，偏重「死因分析」的結構特 質，參照涂爾幹自殺理論的建構取徑，重新藉由全社會層次的社會學觀點，建構個別死亡事件背後共有的歷史形構整體特質，並在死亡結構的基礎上，相應探究死亡結構在不同歷史階段相應牽引的死亡態度與死亡意義變遷，藉以提出在高齡化社會階段的死亡結構與社會變遷所引發的相應社會政策需求。最後在理論思辨層次反思西方心理學觀點的死亡系統論述，呈現東亞社會相對於歐美社會發展的差異特質。 This research argues that dying and death is not only individual but also crucial social events. It is demonstrated that both dying and death are embedded at certain social and cultural context instead of empty conditions. Since 1993 the Taiwanese population has definitely been inclined to be ageing, and then also became one of the countries, of which population is going to age. There has been not only the ageing structure of living population, but death events also less happen at the beginning phrase of our life, whereas people generally die at their latter phrase of life. That means the structure of death population also has taken a turn for being ageing. For all of above trend of population, this research aims to analyze following related questions: What kind of the structure of death population could be constructed by 3 statistical items, type of death, location of death and place of death in the different phrases of Taiwanese aging society? Which impacts of the death attitude and meanings of death related to the passed structure of death population could be still observed in the Taiwanese aging society? What kind of new functions of these old death attitude and meanings of death could be recognized and survive? Tracing back to the holism tradition of Durkheim, I criticize the individual-based approach, which is inclined to analyze the causes of death, represented by public health and psychology in understanding the phenomena of dying and death. Instead, it is aimed to explore the collective social/historical configuration underlining individual dying/death event. Inspired by Durkheim's research approach to suicide, the social fact of dying/death in Taiwan will be analyzed empirically. Based on these empirical findings the social consequences of different dying-death historical phrases will be examined. It is expected these findings will bear fruitful policy implications for the ageing society Taiwan is facing. Lastly, the Western psychology-based discourse on death system will also be reconstructed on a more theoretical level to contrast and compared the peculiar path of East-Asian society in confronting the issue of dying/death.
