Yuko TAMAKI WELPLY

PhD student
EHESS-IRIS

After achieving a master degree of comparative political science and sociology (SPSC) at University of Bordeaux, Yuko Tamaki Welply obtained an international PhD contract (2021-2024) at CNRS to study the innovation aimed for the care of older adults in a comparative perspective (France and Japan), under the supervision of Sébastien Lechevalier. Her master degree’s dissertation dealt with non-pharmacological therapies for depression and with the asymmetrical power relations between the doctors and the patients. She is now interested in the care practices with communicational robots in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) for older adults, as well as the complex relationship between the caregiver, the cared-for, and the robot in LTCFs, in terms of asymmetric capacity (physical, psychological, etc). In this thesis of "Sciences of society" (EHESS/ENS), she mainly employs two qualitative methods and conducts interviews with robot designers, care workers and older residents in LTCFs, and participant observations in a LTCF and a Living Lab in Tokyo and Paris. Her research objectives are to describe in detail the “projected” needs of robot designers, as well as the “real” needs of users, especially related to autonomous life. This research also seeks to explore how the relationship between older adults and caregivers changes through the use of robots.

Research themes: Innovation aimed for the care of older adults in a comparative perspective (France and Japan)

Collaboration with FFJ

INNOVCARE Project member - Theme 3

Yuko Tamaki Welply is a member of the team of the FFJ project entitled "Care-led Innovation. The case of elderly care in France and Japan" (INNOVCARE).