臺灣早期近視驗光配鏡市場的專業鬥爭

Professional Competition in the Early Optical Market for Myopia Services in Taiwan

臺灣號稱「近視王國」，1980年視力保健政策開跑後，眼科醫學會與鐘錶眼鏡商業公會曾短暫合作，投入眼鏡產業的專業培訓制度建構。本文通過各項期刊、報紙與政策檔案，分析1970至1990年代近視驗光配鏡場域的職權競逐、行業人口變動與位置分化，以便解釋這時期專業內與跨專業競逐的始末。本文發現眼科醫師在1970年代中期起，逐漸壟斷了近視流行病與政策建議的發言權，但眼科醫師人數不足以應付視力保健政策所需。眼鏡產業在1970年代與1980年代之交，不但湧入大量經濟與技術資本不一的新業者爭奪商機，也有連鎖經營的大公司吸引眼鏡師傅。部分老牌業者或者直接配合眼科醫師，或者通過鐘錶眼鏡公會建立光學方面的專業門檻，標榜自身的技術資本、確保從業人員的供應。因此眼科醫師與這批業者曾一度合作，共同投入視光專業培訓。但隨著眼科醫師本身的人數逐步增加，配合1980年代末的專業間爭議，這批業者與眼科醫學會的對立再度升高，延緩了視光專業教育的設立。

The government began promoting vision health nationwide from the 1970s in Taiwan, the “kingdom of myopia.” The new policy encouraged ophthalmologists to help advance the watch-and-optics industry. This article analyzes professional journals and archival records to examine how ophthalmologists and opticians contested the boundaries and roles within and between their respective professions from the 1970s to 1990s. Ophthalmologists monopolized the production of myopiarelated knowledge in the role of policy consultant from the mid-1970s, but their limited number could not satisfy the needs of public health policy in Taiwan. By the late 1970s to early 1980s, junior opticians with small retail shops or street stalls and the large chain stores began flooding the eyewear market, threatening the professional status of both ophthalmologists and more experienced opticians. Some opticians cooperated closely with the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan in training opticians, while others set up alternative professional training programs in their own corporations in order to establish their own bona fides and assure the supply of their technicians. In the 1980s and 1990s, the number of ophthalmologists escalated, which renewed professional disputes between the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan and the Taiwan Watch-and-Optics Industry Association and impeded the development of the field of optometry.