scholarly journals “This journey has definitely changed me”: An ethnographic narrative exploring disabled peoples’ lives through embodied experiences and identity negotiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Embodied Experiences

<p>Following calls from both disability studies and anthropology to provide ethnographic accounts of disability, this thesis presents the narratives of nine people living with disability, focusing on what disability means to them, how it is incorporated into their identities, and how it shapes their lived experiences. While accounts of disability from disability studies often focus on the social model of disability (Shakespeare 2006) and emphasise social stigma and oppression (Goffman 1967, Susman 1994), anthropological accounts often emphasise the suffering and search for cures (Rapp and Ginsburg 2012) that is assumed to accompany disability. Both approaches have their benefits, but neither pay particularly close attention to the personal experiences of individuals, on their own terms.  By taking elements from both disciplines, this thesis aims to present a balanced view that emphasises the lived experiences of individuals with disability, and uses these experiences as a starting point for wider social analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is understanding how disability shapes an individual’s identity: what physical, emotional, and social factors influence how these people are perceived – by themselves and others? Through my participants’ narratives I explore how understandings of normal bodies and normal lives influence their sense of personhood, and investigate the role of stigma in mediating social encounters and self-concepts. Furthermore, I undertake a novel study of the role of technology in the lives of people living with disability. My work explores how both assistive and non-assistive (‘general’) technologies are perceived and utilised by my participants in ways that effect not just the physical experience of disability, but also social perceptions and personal understandings of the body/self.  I argue that although the social model of disability is an excellent analytical tool, and one which has provided tangible benefits for disabled people, its political nature can sometimes lead to a homogenisation of disabled experiences; something which this thesis is intended to remedy by providing ethnographic narratives of disability, grounded in the embodied experiences of individuals.</p>

scholarly journals “This journey has definitely changed me”: An ethnographic narrative exploring disabled peoples’ lives through embodied experiences and identity negotiation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Embodied Experiences

<p>Following calls from both disability studies and anthropology to provide ethnographic accounts of disability, this thesis presents the narratives of nine people living with disability, focusing on what disability means to them, how it is incorporated into their identities, and how it shapes their lived experiences. While accounts of disability from disability studies often focus on the social model of disability (Shakespeare 2006) and emphasise social stigma and oppression (Goffman 1967, Susman 1994), anthropological accounts often emphasise the suffering and search for cures (Rapp and Ginsburg 2012) that is assumed to accompany disability. Both approaches have their benefits, but neither pay particularly close attention to the personal experiences of individuals, on their own terms.  By taking elements from both disciplines, this thesis aims to present a balanced view that emphasises the lived experiences of individuals with disability, and uses these experiences as a starting point for wider social analysis. The primary focus of this thesis is understanding how disability shapes an individual’s identity: what physical, emotional, and social factors influence how these people are perceived – by themselves and others? Through my participants’ narratives I explore how understandings of normal bodies and normal lives influence their sense of personhood, and investigate the role of stigma in mediating social encounters and self-concepts. Furthermore, I undertake a novel study of the role of technology in the lives of people living with disability. My work explores how both assistive and non-assistive (‘general’) technologies are perceived and utilised by my participants in ways that effect not just the physical experience of disability, but also social perceptions and personal understandings of the body/self.  I argue that although the social model of disability is an excellent analytical tool, and one which has provided tangible benefits for disabled people, its political nature can sometimes lead to a homogenisation of disabled experiences; something which this thesis is intended to remedy by providing ethnographic narratives of disability, grounded in the embodied experiences of individuals.</p>

scholarly journals “Wir Arme Leut”: Undignified Death and Madness in Berg’s Wozzeck

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meaghan Parker
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Tragic Hero ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Death Experience ◽  
History Of

Images in Western art of the tragic hero meeting his end typically conjure Romantic topics of honour, stoicism, and transcendence, yet it is questionable whether these projections of artistic death translate to the lived experiences of the dying. The titular protagonist of Alban Berg’s 1922 opera, Wozzeck, experiences death in a way that starkly contrasts Romantic ideals. Wozzeck does not die the honourable, ‘masculine’ death that might be expected from a tragic hero; rather, he capitulates to madness, misery, and poverty. Spurned by those who socially outrank him, Wozzeck is condemned to a shameful death, his fate sealed by his destitution and the sanctimonious prejudice against his ‘immoral’ life. These considerations provide a fascinating starting point for an examination of Berg’s poignant representation of Wozzeck’s death — a death that reflects early twentieth century attitudes that shaped and stigmatized the death experience. In this article I will frame my discussion of Wozzeck by considering the history of death in Western society, particularly the stigmas surrounding the gender and class of the dying individual. This history will inform my analysis of the symbolism in Berg’s music. Detailed analysis of Wozzeck sheds a critical light on the social stigma and class structure mapped onto the suffering, madness, and death of Wozzeck and his lover Marie.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment from the Perspective of the Social Model of Disability: A Teaching Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mujde Koca-Atabey
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
Stanford Prison Experiment

This article aims to revisit the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) from the perspective of disability studies. The SPE is an issue that inevitably comes to light while teaching Social Psychology and how it contributes to a different course titled Psychological, Social and Cultural Aspects of Disabilities. The SPE presents a pioneering piece of research within Social Psychology. Similarly, the social model has reformed the concept of disability. The SPE and further studies demonstrate the importance of social forces in shaping human behaviour; i.e. they explore how good people might turn evil in particular circumstances. The social model of disability emphasises the role of social oppression in creating disability. As these two courses contribute to each other, it is discussed that an appropriate level of analysis within the discipline of psychology has much to contribute to the inherently interdisciplinary field of disability studies and vice versa. Interdisciplinary curriculums might be a step towards inclusive higher education.

Design to Break Barriers

2020 ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Jesse Rathgeber
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Disabled Persons ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Iterative Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Instruments

In this experience, learners will develop a critical consciousness of barriers to participation rooted in ableism that are “baked into” instruments. This critical consciousness will assist learners in creating controllers with lower/no barriers for disabled persons/persons with disabilities. Learners will encounter concepts such as the “social model of disability” that come from Disability Studies scholarship in order to find and address disabling features of commercially-available instruments and to design new instruments, controllers, and practices that are anti-ableist. Through these experiences, learners will develop skills and knowledge related to using microcontrollers such as the Makey Makey and coding platforms such as Scratch through an iterative design process.

Later life and the social model of disability: a comfortable partnership?

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE OLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Critical Gerontology ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Perspective

There has been very limited debate about the usefulness of links between later life and disability studies. The paper reviews the arguments for and against a closer association. The social model of disability makes crucial the separation of disability from impairment and shows that it is society that does the disabling. This is never so clear as in the case of housing policies for older people, the focus of this article. Older people suffer discrimination and have to submit to a medical model of later life if they receive health or social care services. The argument against an association between later life studies and disability studies is that later life is an immensely diverse experience, much of it nothing to do with disability. Moreover, some older people reject the negative connotation when later life is equated with disability. The paper argues, however, for a specific application of the social model of disability to the situation of older people with impairments who receive services. It also asserts that the social model of disability can be accommodated in critical gerontology and, in particular, in a post-modern perspective. The paper concludes with examples of the value of the social model of disability at both the policy and political levels.

Representation of Disability in Fairy Tales from the Perspective of the Social Model of Disability. A Case Study of Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, Charles Perrault, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
Michalina Grzelka
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hans Christian Andersen ◽  
Cultural Construct ◽  
Charles Perrault

Beginning from the position of disability understood as a social and cultural construct, this paper aims to analyze and compare representations of disability in fairy tales by such authors as the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, Oscar Wilde, Charles Perrault, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Despite the prevalence of disabled characters in many fairy tales, there exists just a handful of articles on disability in fairy tales within the field of disability studies (Schmiesing 2014). Therefore, this study attempts to fill in a knowledge gap in the area of disability studies by looking at disability and characters with disabilities in fairy tales from the perspective of the social model of disability. In this paper I seek to explore variations in the way different authors describe disability/sickness/deformity and to discuss such subjects related to the area of disability studies as overcoming disability and the question of cure (understood, in the context of fairy tales, as a supernatural restoration to the able-bodied state). In addition, I attempt to see if there exist any differences in how sick/disabled/deformed fairy tales characters are portrayed depending on their gender.

scholarly journals Karmic Philosophy and the Model of Disability in Ancient India

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-43
Author(s):  
Neha Kumari
Keyword(s):  
Disability Studies ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Ancient Times

Disability has been the inescapable part of human society from ancient times. With the thrust of disability right movements and development in field of disability studies, the mythical past of disability is worthy to study. Classic Indian Scriptures mention differently able character in prominent positions. There is a faulty opinion about Indian mythology is that they associate disability chiefly with evil characters. Hunch backed Manthara from Ramayana and limping legged Shakuni from Mahabharata are negatively stereotyped characters. This paper tries to analyze that these characters were guided by their motives of revenge, loyalty and acted more as dramatic devices to bring crucial changes in plot. The deities of lord Jagannath  in Puri is worshipped , without limbs, neck and eye lids which strengthens the notion that disability is an occasional but all binding phenomena in human civilization. The social model of disability brings forward the idea that the only disability is a bad attitude for the disabled as well as the society. In spite of his abilities Dhritrashtra did face discrimination because of his blindness. The presence of characters like sage Ashtavakra and Vamanavtar of Lord Vishnu indicate that by efforts, bodily limitations can be transcended.

scholarly journals Disability Studies wobec natury postaw dyskryminujących

2018 ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
Marcin Wlazło
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
The Social

With the development of disability studies the awareness of “false universalization of disability” increased. It was realized that both theoretical and practical abuse is to treat disability as the main and even the only factor that binds the environment of people with disabilities. The configurations of the aspects of oppression and discriminatory attitudes have been in fact much more complex and elaborate than it was originally thought according to the promotion of the social model of disability. The article addresses the problem of multiplicity and simultaneous oppression, in which disability co-exists among other factors, considering gender, race or age of human as no less important factors of marginalization, violation of law and social exclusion.

When affirmative action is not enough: challenges in career development of persons with disability

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 617-639
Author(s):  
Amit Gupta ◽  
Pushpendra Priyadarshi
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Organizational Climate ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Model Of Disability ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Discrimination

PurposeThere is dearth of research pertaining to how persons with disability (PWDs) view their career and the issues they face in career development; past studies highlight either the organizational initiatives or individual factors in this regard. The present study bridges this gap by studying the PWDs' experiences and perceptions on challenges in their career development.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory study through interview of professionally qualified PWDs in India, who have a permanent employment.FindingsPWDs experience that affirmative action has a negative fallout as it leads to positive discrimination and hence, adversely affects their confidence and development.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study throws up new themes in the organizational climate that the PWDs face in career development, future studies can understand the aspirations of PWDs toward career and focus on the how the PWDs engage in shaping their career. Researchers can explore strategies that PWDs plan/adopt in creating a sustainable career for themselves. Scholars can also map the issues raised by PWDs with the career outcomes.Social implicationsThe Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, of Government of India introduces a social model of disability in India. This paper deploys the social model of disability to enhance our understanding of the disability climate in India from a new lens.Originality/valueThis study introduces new themes that depict the environmental factors and are related to the organizational climate rather than self-focused issues of PWDs. The paper introduces two new subjective criteria, voiced by PWDs, for career development – a well-crafted capability-based career path and role of inspirational platforms. It introduces hitherto undiscovered issues toward career development, faced by PWDs who have a secure employment and a professional career. This is the first exclusive study of PWDs employed in public sector and thus, brings uniqueness in the context.

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