관계적 역량 확장의 실천으로서의 돌봄

Abstract

This article considers care as a practice that creates the possibility of living a better life. Building on Sen and Nussbaum’s capability approach, I propose the concept of relational capabilities, which emphasizes how people’s capabilities are discovered, elicited, generated, and expanded through practices within care relationships. Care, understood as relational practice, can thus be redefined as a process that identifies and enhances people’s capabilities that would otherwise remain latent without such interaction. If capabilities refer to what people are actually capable of doing and being, the capabilities of both care recipients and caregivers can be constrained or expanded depending on the form that care takes. Drawing on in-depth interviews that I conducted with care workers along with existing literature on dementia care, the article demonstrates: first, the sensory, emotional, and imaginative capacities of care recipients can be discovered and generated through attentive observation and practices of adjustment; second, caregivers themselves acquire embodied knowledge and develop the ability to care through these very practices, enabling them to pursue what they value.