Navigating the ethical maze in disability research: ethical contestations in an African context

Despite changes in how disability is viewed, ethical requirements for disability research have hardly changed. Some ethical clearance procedures, processes and practices still consider persons with disabilities as not able, creating unease among researchers and research participants with disabilities themselves. This paper considers five ethical contestations arising from research in the area of disability in an African context: positionality, vulnerability, signed consent, anonymity, and research committee composition. We argue that ethical requirements in practice are still largely based on a medical model of disability and propose that culturally sensitive social and human rights models should influence disability research ethics.     

Toward a Culturally Informed Rehabilitation Treatment Model for American Indian/Alaska Native Veterans

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) have a long tradition of military service, allying with Western forces in North America since the 1700s. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that AI/AN veterans experience higher rates of overall disability and service-related disability than veterans of other races and ethnicities. It is not clear, however, that AI/AN veterans with disabilities are receiving effective, culturally informed rehabilitation services. This article examines the incidence of disability among contemporary AI/AN veterans, considers barriers to effective treatment, and points out model programs tailored to the particular needs of this population, with attention to the historical and cultural context of AI/AN military service.     

The Client Role: A help or a hindrance?

Using a case study methodology this paper describes the life of one man, Barry, who is labelled blind and mentally retarded. The role of the 'client' is used as an analytic tool to understand the dynamics of some of the counterproductive aspects of human services. It is illustrated how many behaviour patterns that were thought to be a reflection of the 'disability' could be understood as manifestations of the role of the client. The key attribute of this role, as understood through Barry's life, is that the person with a disability is cast as a 'recipient' or 'receiver' of services or assistance within a power dynamic where the receiver is extended little autonomy and responsibility. It is demonstrated that the client role exaggerates Barry's incompetence, perpetuates the perception that the 'problem' resides in Barry, rather than in the support system, and is an obstacle to developing relationships and participating in the broader community.     

Disability Culture and Cultural Competency in Social Work

Despite recognition of the importance of cultural and social diversity in social work education and practice there is a dearth of social work literature related to disability culture. A review of disability studies literature indicates that the disabled people's movement already affirms and celebrates the existence of disability culture as characterized by several agreed upon assumptions: disability culture is cross-cultural; it emerged out of a disability arts movement and its positive portrayal of disabled people; it is not just a shared experience of oppression but includes art, humour, history, evolving language and beliefs, values and strategies for surviving and thriving. Essentialist concepts of culture, as represented in assimilationist and pluralist social work approaches, provide social workers with the false belief that there are cultural competencies that one can develop that are sufficient to become more culturally sensitive. However, analysis of the critical theory underpinning disability culture demonstrates that an understanding of cultural politics is fundamental to social work education if it is to support the work of the disabled people's movement in demystifying and deconstructing the norms, discourses and practices of dominant culture which are represented as neutral and universal.     

Interpretative accounts of work capacity assessment policy for young adults with disabilities

Young adults with disabilities are a specific target of the welfare-to-work policy introduced by many OECD countries over the past decade. The implementation of these policies is a significant concern for service delivery organisations and advocates in Australia and internationally due to complex intersecting structural barriers that persist for many young adults with disabilities. A particular focus of this article is work capacity assessments. Drawing on socio-political theories and interpretive policy analysis, the 22 in-depth interviews with personnel from service delivery organisations and advocacy organisations reveal how the deemed capacity to work process is not only interpreted as flawed, but the current policy approach disables young adults, perpetuates stigma, and creates division between service users and service providers. The accounts reinforce the need to contest such assessments and instead turn towards a rights-based capability approach permitting young adults with disability self-determination over their education-to-employment pathway.     

Development of children's understandings of physical disabilities and stigmatization in a Japanese cultural context: Reflections of children in second through sixth grades

Stigmatization associated with disability is a culturally widespread social justice issue. Elementary school age is an important period for children to develop positive attitudes toward people with disabilities. This study examines Japanese elementary school-aged children's developing perceptions of disability and stigmatization. Following interactions and discussion about disabilities with the author, a guest teacher who uses a wheelchair, 118 typically-developing Japanese children in second through sixth grades provided written reflections on physical disability and stigmatization. Children in all grade levels described both positive and negative aspects of disability. Younger children's responses, however, were relatively positive, focusing on concrete examples of life in a wheelchair. Older children's responses focused more on challenges, and articulated their feelings and thoughts about disability in greater detail. Some older children also used the author's disability narratives to describe how they had overcome their own challenges that were not necessarily related to disability. Such differences in children's responses by grade levels are discussed in the context of Japanese socialization practices that emphasize sensitivity to stigmatization as well as empathy to maintain interpersonal relationships. Implications of Japanese cultural cases to professionals in Western countries also are discussed.     

Disability and social justice

This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommodifying labour; culturally, by deconstructing self-sufficiency; and politically, by transnationalising democracy. The disability perspective reveals that decommodification of labour requires enhancement of disability support, deconstruction of self-sufficiency requires valorisation of disability-illuminated interdependence, and transnationalisation of democracy requires scrutiny of the transnational production of impairments. The article discusses each of these strategies in theoretical and practical terms by drawing on disability studies and Fraser’s analyses.     

Engaging with Disability Services: Experiences of Families from Chinese Backgrounds in Sydney

People from Chinese backgrounds remain underrepresented in disability service use. This paper explores family experiences of using child disability support services to understand how migration and their cultural expectations about disability and service affect the way they use services. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 family carers in Sydney. They were striving to gain good support for their child from formal services. However, most of them were reluctant to express any dissatisfaction to service providers, which meant that assertively requesting different support was difficult and culturally inappropriate. In response, service providers can design nonconfrontational ways to elicit this vital information and support families to gain experience tackling conflict.     

Moving images of exclusion: Persisting tropes in the filmic representation of European Roma

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the most prominent tropes in the earliest and most recent filmic representations of Roma. Stereotypical images of Roma abound in many fictional features as well as documentaries, from the representation of Roma as eternal nomads to racially prejudiced depictions of Roma women and the alleged innateness of music to Roma. Because images and modes of representation change over time, the paper juxtaposes the earliest portrayals of Roma with those produced in the last 15 years. The analysis particularly centres on two dominant reoccurring tropes: types of spaces typically occupied by Roma in film, that is the lack of a place or so-called placeless-ness of Roma; the gendered other, or the Roma woman and the culturally and ethnically othered Roma musician. Ultimately, by analysing how these tropes have persisted in varying forms over 100 years, this work points to the filmic imagery that perpetuates antiziganism, but also how the same has changed over the years to offer possible counter-narratives.     

Racist humor: then and now

While recent scholarship has examined the capacity of race‐based humor to “upend” racial inequalities, or has focused on comedic “heroes” who use humor “subversively” to challenge racism, less attention has been paid to the evolution of racist humor and its continued role in supporting dominant racial ideologies. This article reviews key works on the historical and current functions of racist humor in the United States, in order to situate racist humor as a social practice that has contributed to the development, maintenance, and contestation of an ideology of white supremacy. First, I review the historical role of racist humor in supporting pro‐slavery ideology, in order to see that racist humor played a critical role in racial formation and domination. I focus on literature that examines the way racial ridicule operated in the pre‐civil rights era (e.g., blackface) and the way such race‐based comedy was used as a cultural form of racialization that supported the development of an ideology of white supremacy throughout this period. Then, I point to how the widespread use of racist humor of the pre‐civil rights era was challenged by the civil rights movement, and how this changed the ways in which racist humor was perceived/operated, in public and private, in the post‐civil rights era. Finally, I conclude by suggesting some areas where an examination of racist humor is in need of critical attention and analysis in the current era of “color‐blindness.”     

Perspectives of elementary school educators in Japan,South Korea,Taiwan and the US on disability,stigmatization and children's developing self Part 1: Defining the problem in cultural context

The stigmatization of individuals with disabilities is a widespread social justice issue. This paper introduces a study of disability, stigmatization and self for children with disabilities and their typically-developing peers. It is the first of two companion papers. It examines the problem of stigmatization from the perspectives of experienced elementary school educators practicing in diverse cultural contexts. We conducted cross-cultural analyses of individual, audio recorded interviews with 26 Japanese, 43 Korean, 16 Taiwanese and 18 US educators, including school social workers. Educators from all four cultural groups described disability and stigma as challenging children's development of self: children with disabilities may experience the self as isolated and inadequate, and typically-developing peers may experience the self as lacking culturally expected values of empathy and respect. Educators' understandings of children's experiences also were culturally nuanced. Educators variously described children with disabilities as experiencing a sense of not belonging [Japan], loss of motivation [South Korea], too much shame [Taiwan], and low self-esteem [US]. They variously described typically-developing children as challenged to show empathy [Japan], include children with disabilities in their peer group [South Korea], develop benevolence [Taiwan], and show respect for individual differences [US]. We contextualize educators' perceptions within their specific sociocultural-historical contexts. Our second paper will focus on solutions; specifically, educators' perspectives on how to minimize stigmatization and support the development of self for children with disabilities and their typically-developing peers. Together, these companion papers provide social workers with valuable perspectives for eliminating the stigmatization of children with disabilities in future generations.     

Laughter,the Best Mediation: Humor as Emotion Management in Interaction

Recent work in emotions and emotion management suggests that humor is a social phenomenon and serves an important purpose in interaction. That is, humor can be viewed as interpersonal emotion management, whose purpose is to manage the emotions of others as well as of the self. This article offers the following definition as an analytical tool: humor as emotion management is an expert cultural performance; which strengthens or restores the feeling norms of the situation and creates amusement in the self and others; generating positive sentiments among members of an interacting group by bonding them and/or reducing an external threat; often at the expense of some excluded person(s), event(s), or object(s).     

Humor and Social Movements

At first glance, humor and politics may appear oppositional. Politics is often understood as serious, important, and grave, while humor is perceived as lighthearted and frivolous. Beneath the surface, however, it is evident that humor and politics are actually inextricably linked and have been throughout political history. This paper interrogates the tensions between humor and seriousness, importance and frivolity, and legitimate and dismissible to examine the manifestations of humor in social movement protest. I discuss how humor is used as a communicative and emotional strategy for social movement activists and organizations and focus on two constellations of movement humor: humor directed outside the group in the forms of tactics and frames, which I term external humor, and the role of humor in leadership, collective identity, and emotional labor, termed internal humor. To illustrate the role of humor in protest, I integrate examples from scholarly research, media depictions, and participant observation data to provide examples of how humor is manifest as an external tactic, social movement frame, and its potential role in strengthening ties to leadership and collective identity. The essay concludes by highlighting some potential paths for future study about the relationship between humor, ideology, identity, and power.     

Humor and satire in politics: Introducing cultural sociology to the field

The landscape of political humor and satire is changing rapidly, and it is becoming an increasingly relevant aspect of our culture. Although scholars have been actively trying to capture this change, majority of the existing frameworks for understanding humor and satire in politics still reduce these phenomena to mere genres or rhetoric tools. In addition, they provide insufficient accounts concerning the reception of humor and satire, and neglect to interpret and explain what they communicate. In the article, a general understanding of humor and satire outside of a political context, followed by an overview of studies discussing humor and satire in politics through their applications in social movements, as leadership tools, and through their manifestations in mass media has been presented. Lastly, a cultural sociological perspective to the field has been introduced. It has been argued that approaching humor and satire in politics through a structural hermeneutic method of the Strong Program will enable us to recognize and treat political humor and satire as autonomous and complex cultural systems which carry an internal power to move people.     

From symptom recognition to services: how South Asian Muslim immigrant families navigate autism

This study examined the experiences of three South Asian Muslim immigrant families who have a young child with autism. It describes the early period of their child’s disability as the families encountered four critical issues in their lives: a complex disability, the culturally diverse conceptualizations of the disability, family‐professional dynamics in cross‐cultural encounters and the search for appropriate services. Analyses were based on interviews with parents, supplemented by 17 months of participant‐observation in homes and community. Parents narrated their experiences beginning with symptom recognition through help seeking, diagnosis and subsequent service provision. Results suggest that for these families the challenging process of diagnosing and ameliorating autism is complicated by their unique positioning within and between diverse meaning systems. Challenges include American health and education professionals’ misunderstandings of their family organization and linguistic practices, and difficulties in cross‐cultural communication with professionals. Implications for professionals are discussed.     

A GIS Analysis of East Asian Care Gaps in Residential and Assisted Living Facilities in Vancouver,Canada

Residential care and assisted living services provide support to seniors who may not have the ability to live independently. However, East Asian residents often do not have sufficient access to culturally specific activities, which may result in psychosocial stress and isolation. This study presents a geographic analysis method to evaluate spatial distribution of culturally tailored senior care facilities in Metro Vancouver. We identify geographical disparities, indicating that many East Asian seniors have poor local access to a culturally tailored facility. We recommend the use of geographical analysis techniques to improve the analysis and planning for senior care in an increasingly diverse population.     

THE DISABLED BODY,GENEALOGY AND UNDECIDABILITY

The received history of the disabled body is deeply problematized by a genealogy – inspired initially by Foucault – that disrupts the notion of a continuous development of ideas and images, and shifts the focus to competing, fractured and discontinuous discourses culturally embedded in particular historical periods. Following Foucault's explication of the emergence of modernist normativities and the operation of power/knowledge, disability scholarship has charted a break between early religiously-inspired models concerned with a god-given nature, a medical model that pathologizes the disabled body and, more recently, the social model of disability that effects a politicization of the problematic. Yet consistent with a Foucauldian analytic, even the latter resistant discourse gives rise to its own normativities and generates new resistances. Alongside the return of the disabled body to challenge the hegemony of socio-cultural determinations, I offer, then, a further complication. Where previous approaches speak to external discursive power – albeit embedded in the individual consciousness – as the motor of change, I seek to supplement and reconfigure the problematic by engaging with the operation of psychic elements. Within the historically contextualized transformations in the meaning of disability, there is, I argue, another current of interior and less accessible responses, which not only challenge the privileging of periodization in historical thought, but also disorder the alternative Foucauldian approach. Where his analysis is concerned with the multifarious mobilizations of the binary of self and other, a more specifically deconstructive approach seeks to uncover the other as an interior attribute of the embodied self. This essay plays over some historical moments and brings them together with postmodernist and psychoanalytic theory to show how binary differences are constantly undone by the irreducible différance of the disabled body.     

Humor in therapy for the mentally ill.

There are many benefits of humor as a planned intervention for CMI patients. In addition to physiological, psychological, social, and communicative benefits for the patient are the benefits of humor for the nurse therapist. According to Keller (1984), another legitimate function of humor in therapy is as a source of rejuvenation for the therapist. Working with a population of clients whose progress is sometimes difficult to ascertain can sometimes be draining and may result in burnout if nurses are not periodically rejuvenated. Humor can act as an energizer for both clients and nurses, and can help nurses maintain their equilibrium. Areas for Further Research. Sullivan and Deane (1988) posed five potential areas for study in gerontological-oriented humor, but all of these areas are also applicable in the study of humor among the chronically mentally ill: Identification of any functional level changes and cognitive flexibility resulting from increased humor experiences. Development of humor assessment tools. Identification of environmental variables and barriers that affect the spontaneous occurrence of humor, especially in institutional settings. Exploration of differences in the effects of group and dyadic humor on mental health. Exploration of favorable and unfavorable environmental contexts and outcomes for using therapeutic humor.     

The effects of social power and disparagement humor on the evaluations of subordinates

Abstract

This article examines the effects of social power and disparagement humor on the evaluation of subordinates. According to prejudiced norm theory, it is proposed that powerful people, compared with the powerless, are more likely to negatively evaluate subordinates when exposed to disparagement humor against subordinates. To test this hypothesis, two studies were conducted. Study 1 (N = 116) aimed to analyze and select humorous material (neutral vs. disparagement humor against subordinates) that allowed us to test our hypothesis. Study 2 (N = 116) investigated the effect of the exposure to disparagement humor in people who hold or not a power position. Results showed an interaction between power and type of humor: when powerful people were exposed to disparagement humor they evaluated subordinates worse than the powerless, whereas when they were exposed to neutral humor there were no differences between groups. The implications of these results are discussed.     

The Therapeutic Use of Humor With Clients Who Have Schizophrenia

A positive worker/client relationship contributes greatly to a mental health client’s achievement of intervention goals. Practitioners who work with clients who have schizophrenia sometimes face challenges in developing positive relationships with them when the cognitive impairments characteristic of that disorder make verbal communication difficult. The purpose of this article is to review the indications for using humor with clients in general and then consider the potential for practitioners to use humor as one means of developing constructive working relationships with clients who have schizophrenia. This article does not address the use of specific humor techniques, but considers whether practitioners with a natural sense of humor can use it to their advantage in working with members of this population. Seven principles for the use of humor, and seven client examples, are included.