Another Way of Looking

This article presents a discussion that emerged in response to a dilemma faced by an experienced social work lecturer in planning an introductory life course lecture about people labelled as having learning disabilities. The dilemma related to whether or not to begin with a quote from a parent reflecting on her own feelings shortly after her twin children, aged six months, had been identified as having a congenital impairment. The statement, reproduced below, was made 13 years later, and involved a recollection of how the mother had felt when seeing a display of skipping ropes in a department store. A discussion ensued concerning how ways of thinking about impairment can be informed by the affirmative model of disability, a recent theoretical development within disability studies. The article takes the form of a dialogic exchange where the affirmative model is presented and examined as an alternative to the way disability has traditionally been understood in social work education. The aim is to illustrate the application of the affirmative model and to provide disabled people/social workers/families with a theoretical tool with which to look differently at impairment and disability and to challenge some traditional assumptions and practices.     

Stars are not Born: An Interpretive Approach to the Politics of Disability

The politics of disability are usually interpreted as attempts to influence government policy in the direction of reducing the negative effects of impairment. This paper enlarges that conventional notion to include attention to how the disabled subject is produced by the discursive practices within which disability is administered.

A summary of epistemological perspectives represented by contemporary social thought dealing with disability opens the discussion. Foucault's work is presented as the basis for interpreting recent social science literature on disability from a viewpoint which is sensitive to variations in epistemological presuppositions in that literature and to the political implications of each mode of research for the administration and treatment of disability.

A concluding section contains speculation on forms of political action which are relevant to the politics of disability at the constitutive level.     

Young people,social media and connective action: from organisational maintenance to everyday political talk

Social media is pervasive in the lives of young people, and this paper critically analyses how politically engaged young people integrate social media use into their existing organisations and political communications. This qualitative research project studied how young people from a broad range of existing political and civic groups use social media for sharing information, mobilisation and, increasingly, as a means to redefine political action and political spaces. Twelve in-person focus groups were conducted in Australia, the USA and the UK with matched affinity groups based on university campuses. The groups were of four types: party political group, issue-based group, identity-based group and social group. Our focus group findings suggest that this in-depth approach to understanding young people's political engagement reveals important group-based differences emerging in young people's citizenship norms: between the dutiful allegiance to formal politics and a more personalised, self-actualising preference for online, discursive forms of political engagement and organising. The ways in which political information is broadcast, shared and talked about on social media by engaged young people demonstrate the importance of communicative forms of action for the future of political engagement and connective action.     

A sociology of impairment

Impairment has a ubiquitous and troublesome position within disability studies. The absence of an effective theoretical understanding of impairment has been a major problem for the field. One way out of this impasse is to situate impairment sociologically. By regarding impairment as a thoroughly social dynamic, and examining it though a sociological lens, it is possible to develop a richer understanding of the experiences, politics, and identities of disabled people. Some of the key elements of a sociology of impairment include: using a socially-embedded phenomenology; exploring the social creation of impairment through inequality; deconstructing the cultural construction of impairment; critically examining diagnosis; and analyzing the personal and political significance of impairment identities.     

Unravelling Mr President’s nomad lands: travelling to interdisciplinary frontiers of knowledge in disability studies

In this article the aim is to challenge essentialist ontological assumptions surrounding the impairment category of ‘learning difficulties’ as it was previously conceptualized in social theory and practice. I ground my knowledge production in self‐advocates connected to the self‐advocacy movement in Flanders (Belgium) and in critical feminist disability studies. Drawing upon the post‐structuralist feminist Rosi Braidotti, who introduced nomadology as a new figuration of layered, embedded and embodied subjectivity, I bring the illustrative nomadic subjectivity of the president of the self‐advocacy network to the public eye. In order to allow disability scholars and activists re‐inscribe new scenarios in our contemporary discourse and shared culture, I appeal for an interpretation of the impaired body and mind as a socio‐political field.     

Towards an Affirmation Model of Disability

In this paper we argue that a new model of disability is emerging within the literature by disabled people and within disability culture, expressed most clearly by the Disability Arts Movement. For the purposes of discussion we call it the affirmative model. It is essentially a non-tragic view of disability and impairment which encompasses positive social identities, both individual and collective, for disabled people grounded in the benefits of lifestyle and life experience of being impaired and disabled. This view has arisen in direct opposition to the dominant personal tragedy model of disability and impairment, and builds on the liberatory imperative of the social model. Critiques of the latter have been consistently expressed as, or interpreted as, re-affirmations of personal tragedy, particularly in relation to impairment. In this analysis the affirmation model addresses the limitations of the social model through the realisation of positive identity encompassing impairment, as well as disability.     

Disability Discourses for Online Identities

Beneficial effects of the online medium have been reported for disabled people in terms of providing a 'levelling ground' where they can be treated on their merits as a person, rather than as a disabled person. If this occurs because impairment is invisible online, how then are disabled people managing disability disclosure within this social context? This paper addresses this issue discursively. Participants were recruited from various disability organisations in New Zealand and were invited to take part in an online interview. A 'choice to disclose' repertoire was identified and was organised around three key resources: relevance, anonymity and normality. Embedded within each resource is the idea that the presence or absence of impairment is constructed as a feature controlled by the individual. Positioning identity within a subjectivity removed from impairment was made possible through these resources and was valued by participants. Political implications associated with the absence of impairment are discussed.     

The Constitution of Impairment: modernity and the aesthetic of oppression

Impairment has been set aside in debates about disability dominated by the social model. This paper seeks to go beyond the Cartesianism which produces this neglect. It suggests that radical disability studies can prosper from a critique of modernity which entails a shift from its singular epistemological origins in the critique of capitalism. The argument challenges the contention that the oppression of disabled people is reducible to social restrictions which are the outcome of a set of structural determinations. It suggests that the oppression of disabled people is also umbilically linked to the visual constitution of impairment in the scopic regime of modernity. The vision of modernity is impaired by the assumption that to see is to know, that is, by its ocularcentrism. In deconstructing the visual culture of modernity, it is possible to demonstrate that the non-disabled gaze is a product of this specific way of seeing which actually constructs the world that it claims to discover. Using the work of Sartre and, to a lesser extent, Foucault, this paper argues that impairment is constructed-not discovered-in the non-disabled gaze. The invalidation and disfigurement of impaired bodies is, therefore, not simply an economic and cultural response to them, but also arises in the mode of perception which visualises and articulates them as strangers.     

Tales of Hidden Lives: a critical examination of life history research with people who have learning difficulties

This paper explores the use of life history research with people who have learning difficulties. [1] A number of strengths and weaknesses associated with the life history as a method of imparting life experiences are examined. Particular emphasis is given to the dilemmas that researchers may face in explicating the life histories of informants labelled as having learning difficulties. With reference to literature on narrative-based research and by drawing upon my own research experiences, I will argue that life histories reaffirm the personal in social theorising, whilst providing a methodology in which individual and social worlds may be drawn together. In addition, eliciting life histories may promote a vivid sense of the research process, thus demystifying the often over technical and jargonised nature of social scientific study. On the down-side, I will suggest that images of the 'imaginative researcher' and 'articulate informant' portrayed in much life history literature, threaten to stifle researchers' concerns with the inclusion of people with learning difficulties. Furthermore, I will draw attention to dilemmas that arise in making links between an individual's life history and social theory. Finally, problems relating to issues of bias and power are explored. In research involving people with learning difficulties, it is concluded that life histories cogently expose the experiences of people so-labelled and therefore deserve further usage albeit with critical assessment.     

Negotiating disability and colonisation: the lived experience of Indigenous Australians with a disability

Disability among Indigenous Australians lies at a nexus between the ongoing impact of European settlement from 1788 and the social effects of living with a disability. Colonisation, with its political, social, economic and cultural concomitants, continues to impact on Indigenous experience, extending to the institutions and services concerned with disability. There is little attention paid to Indigenous Australian disability in general, and the need to decolonise disability has recently been emphasised. Ethnographic research in Brisbane, Australia among Indigenous people with a disability (mostly related to diabetes) confirms the ongoing impact of colonisation. While this experience pervades all aspects of their lives, it also moderates their experience of living with a disability in positive ways. However, while individuals can negotiate their personal experience of disability, the decolonisation of disability services presents challenges that need to be addressed.     

The Effect of Social Work Education and Self-Esteem on Students' Social Discrimination of People with Disabilities

Social work education on disability content has become more important due to political changes in the last two decades. The United States protected people with disabilities from discrimination in community and employment settings with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. These changes have empowered people with disabilities to become more independent; however, social workers primarily fulfill roles as case managers, and often make decisions for people with disabilities. This is not consistent with the empowerment perspective embedded in the disability movement. Most social work schools have minimal courses covering disability content. Previous research and the Self-Esteem Hypothesis indicate that social work education, social proximity to people with disabilities, self-esteem and other demographic characteristics are associated with social discrimination, or attitudes, toward people with disabilities. Social work students (n = 73) participated in a survey in the last semester of their program to assess how these characteristics were associated with their attitudes towards people with disabilities. A multiple linear regression revealed that social work education preparedness to work with people with disabilities, an MSW education, self-esteem, and having a friend with a disability were significantly associated with students' social discrimination towards people with disabilities.     

Interviewing Non-disabled People About Their Disability-related Attitudes: seeking methodologies

Within the field of disability studies there has been a concentration upon the representation of disabled people's experiences within a social context. However, research into non-disabled people's perspectives on disability and impairment has traditionally been based upon a psychologically-driven individualist model of disability which sees disabled people uncritically as 'the problem'. In this apparent epistemological divide, little work has been done on the exploration of non-disabled people's perspectives from a social model angle. This paper outlines a current study of the formation of such perspectives, and specifically explores the methodological conditioners of such an enquiry.     

Art for Whose Sake?

In a wide ranging article the author considers the nature of poetry and the political agendas of literature generally in order to dispel The myth of the personal versus the political, which has been particularly prevalent in the disability arts debate. He examines some of the statements made about disability art in the disability press, questioning on the way assumptions about the existence of a so-called disability culture. He promotes a role for the poet, particularly the poet of a minority group, as witness to the oppression generated by a dominant language-constructed culture, Concluding that there is no longer the need for a conflict between the role of writer/artist and political activist in their movement towards the political liberation of disabled people.     

Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice: Building Transformative Politicized Social Work

Abstract

Evidence shows that children and young people with disability experience violence, abuse, and neglect at rates considerably higher than their peers. Despite persistent efforts to address it, these rates do not appear to be declining over time. As Australia moves towards implementing a national policy of personalised disability support, new opportunities and risks arise concerning personal safety in young people's lives. This paper reviews the existing evidence on abuse and neglect of children and young people with disability to help identify the nature of these risks and potential ways of thinking about and responding to these. Applying a social ecological lens, the discussion points to the importance of working productively with the multidimensional realities of these children's lives at a time when the policy and services designed to support them are also in a state of flux. The paper invites and challenges researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to engage critically with the knowledge already available and to question more deeply why abuse and neglect continue to diminish the lives of children and young people with disability.     

Boiled Eggs and Baked Beans - a personal account of a hearing researcher's journey through Deaf Culture

This article forms a reflexive account of the trials, pains and joys of the launch of a hearing researcher into 'Deaf Culture' - the unique world of British Sign Language (BSL) users. Three resources of reflexive data are utilised; the researcher's experiences of learning BSL with other hearing signers; participant observation data from a Unit for Deaf people with psychiatric problems and finally, experiences of interviewing members of a national organisation of Deaf people. These experiences reflect the assumptions and preconceptions the hearing world holds concerning Deaf people and the remarkable ways in which the latter rationalise them and attempt to subvert them. The intellectual issues addressed here concern the role and status of researchers within foreign settings, the problems of enculturisation and the physical and social effects experienced whilst undertaking this type of research.     

The Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disability

In this paper it is argued that a social theory of disability can best be developed through the use of the concept of oppression. This concept is outlined, and special emphasis is placed on the importance of the social origins of impairment in such an analysis. The ways in which this approach would utilise data gathered from other theoretical perspectives is indicated. General features of a theory of disability as oppression are specified.     

User satisfaction surveys and cognitive question testing in the public sector: the case of personal social services in England

Obtaining feedback from service users is a key element of the UK Labour Government's agenda for modernization of the public sector. This reflects a growing international trend in Europe and North America. Recognized difficulties in taking an approach to performance assessment based on the concept of user satisfaction are outlined. Ascertaining the views of people who use personal social services poses particular challenges which result from the levels of impairment and illness in the population, local variations in service provision and the 'care and control' functions of social care. It is argued that cognitive testing of questions, based on research knowledge about user views, provides a way of overcoming some of the pitfalls of traditional satisfaction surveys, while developing questions that are meaningful to respondents. The origins and principles of cognitive testing are described, followed by an example of their application in the development of a questionnaire for home care users. Strengths and limitations of the approach are identified.     

Locating Self-advocacy in Models of Disability: understanding disability in the support of self-advocates with learning difficulties

Recent appraisals of self-advocacy groups of people with learning difficulties have tended to focus on the constitutional and structural facets of groups whilst failing to explicitly engage with disability theory. This paper explores different understandings of disability and examines how these are or can be implicated in the self-advocacy movement. First, the effects of the dominant individual or personal tragedy model of disability on self-advocacy will be examined with reference to the advisor's position. It is argued that if advisors hold such understandings of disability then they threaten to stifle the selfdetermination of self-advocates. Secondly, self-advocacy framed in terms of the alternative social model of disability will be presented. It is argued with reference to the advisor's role that self-advocacy is best understood and practised when it is grounded in this persuasion. Here, the views of self-advocates themselves are called upon. Finally, understanding self-advocacy in terms of the social model is taken further. It is suggested that self-advocates themselves directly challenge dominant understandings of disability in general and can contribute to the formulation of a social theory of disability.     

Normalisation, Emancipatory Research and Inclusive Research in Learning Disability

In this article I set out to trace the influence of two major sets of ideas: normalisation/srv, and the social model of disability on inclusive research in learning disability. The argument is that normalisation set the agenda for learning disability research for two or more decades. Inclusive researchers continue to apply normalisation thinking to work with people with learning difficulties, particularly in assuming the role of advocate - offering people the opportunity to take on valued social roles and assuming responsibility for promoting positive images. Latterly, a number of researchers have tried to rise to the challenges posed by emancipatory research, particularly in attempting to find ways to put people with learning difficulties in control. This illustrates the influence of thinking emanating from disability studies. However, the paper shows that whilst some ideas from emancipatory research have been applied in learning disability, there are debates in the disability literature that have not been addressed in learning disability research to date. The result is that inclusive research in learning disability is in danger of being marginalised, both in the context of disability studies and in the context of the broad sweep of learning disability research.     

Change and continuity in youth transitions in Eastern Europe: Lessons for Western sociology*

This paper argues that the evidence from research among young people in post‐communist countries vindicates and should consolidate confidence in the Western sociology of youth's conventional transitions paradigm which seeks links between social origins, routes and destinations. Contrary to claims about postmodern fluidity, individualisation, and a blurring of traditional structural boundaries, the expected links between origins, routes and destinations have persisted throughout the transformation of the former communist countries. The relevant evidence also confirms the primacy of education‐to‐work and family/housing life stage transitions. Other aspects of young people's lives – their uses of leisure, levels and patterns of social and political participation, and socio‐political attitudes, for example – become meaningful and explicable only when set in the context of the routes that individuals’ lives have taken, and the stages that they have reached, vis‐à‐vis their school‐to‐work and family and housing transitions. The paper proceeds to argue that the exceptionally thorough changes that are still in process in East‐Central Europe and the former USSR reveal with exceptional clarity the processes whereby young people's life chances are structured in ways that are not of the individuals’ own making. It has been, and it remains, possible to observe how young adults learn from their own youth life stage transition experiences and, where applicable, use the assets that they acquire or retain, to advantage their own children thereby structuring the opportunities that confront all members of subsequent cohorts of young people. Finally, it is argued that the sociological approach being advocated is uniquely able to use the evidence from young people as a window through which to identify the impact of the ongoing macro‐changes in former communist countries among different socio‐demographic groups in the wider populations.