In Pursuit of Justice for Disability: Model Neutrality Revisited

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-45
Author(s):  
Anita Silvers
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Models Of Disability

This chapter addresses confusions that contribute to seemingly essential conceptual contestation about whether being disabled is not just being different but is inescapably bad. There are two generally accepted main functions for which models of disability are formulated and used: (1) categorizing individuals as being disabled or not and (2) explaining why people experience limitations due to disability. Conceptualizing disability as a “term of art” is the currently common, but narrowly useful, approach to engaging with the first function. The broader second function is explored by considering a flawed model of disability constructed for policy purposes and discovering how modeling disability for explanatory purposes can go wrong. Finally, the chapter shows what goes wrong for aspirational and epistemic justice when a more controversial third function, modeling disability appraisively, is pursued to advance the claim that being disabled is not merely a difference but is inveterately, even if not definitively, bad.

Art Creation as an Instrument in Education of Individuals with Disabilities

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Pavel Sochor
Keyword(s):  
Art Education ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Outsider Art ◽  
Individuals With Disabilities ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
Models Of Disability ◽  
Art Brut ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
The Impact

Theoretical study deals with approaches towards art education of individuals with disabilities. Arts and Education are crucial cultural components and significantly affect the quality of life of people with disabilities in our society. Nowadays both components may serve to promote the ideas od lifelong inclusive education. Intervention in education is influenced by models of disability concepts reflecting different approaches. Art therapy and approach presenting the impact of disability on the basis of social reality is confronted with the presentation of disabled artist´s personality and his diversity. Unique environment of art education centres and art studios provides opportunity for cultivation of personality of a person with disability. The establishment of author with a disablity in artistic style art brut and outsider art in mainstream society can be considered as a form of socialization.

scholarly journals Family multilingualism from a southern perspective: Language ideologies and practices of Brazilian parents in Norway

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Lomeu Gomes
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Global South ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Language Practices ◽  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Race Ethnicity

AbstractThis article derives from a three-year ethnographic project carried out in Norway focusing on language practices of Brazilian families raising their children multilingually. Analyses of interview data with two Brazilian parents demonstrate the relevance of examining intersectionally the participants’ orientation to categorisations such as social class, gender, and race/ethnicity. Additionally, I explore how parents make sense of their transnational, multilingual experiences, and the extent to which these experiences inform the language-related decisions they make in the home. Advancing family multilingualism research in a novel direction, I employ a southern perspective as an analytical position that: (i) assumes the situatedness of knowledge production; (ii) aims at increasing social and epistemic justice; (iii) opposes the dominance of Western-centric epistemologies; and (iv) sees the global South as a political location, not necessarily geographic, but with many overlaps. Finally, I draw on the notions of intercultural translation and equivocation to discuss the intercultural encounters parents reported. The overarching argument of this article is that forging a southern perspective from which to analyse parental language practices and beliefs offers a theoretical framework that can better address the issues engendered by parents engaged in South–North transnational, multilingual practices.

scholarly journals Centering Social Justice in Mental Health Practice: Epistemic Justice and Social Work Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973152110109
Author(s):  
Marjorie Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Epistemic Justice

This article examines how mental health social work practice can move outside the hegemony of the medical model using approaches that honor the centering of social justice. By using the philosophical analysis of epistemic injustice and the ethics of knowing, I move out of the traditional psychiatric and psychological conceptual frameworks and discuss new guiding principles for practice. In the context of the radical tradition in social work and the impetus to blend theory with practice, I consider the use of narrative and anti-oppressive approaches to center social justice principles in individual dyadic work as well as in wider systems family and community work and policy advocacy. I evaluate these approaches through the principles of epistemic justice and discuss the importance of a relational collaborative approach where honoring the client and exploring lived experience are central to both the concepts of testimonial justice, hermeneutic justice and anti-oppressive practice.

Prenatal Genetic Screening, Epistemic Justice, and Reproductive Autonomy

Hypatia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Amber Knight ◽  
Joshua Miller
Keyword(s):  
Prenatal Testing ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Reproductive Decisions ◽  
Reproductive Autonomy ◽  
Noninvasive Prenatal Testing ◽  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Reproductive Decision Making ◽  
Testimonial Injustice ◽  
And Control

AbstractNoninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) promises to enhance women's reproductive autonomy by providing genetic information about the fetus, especially in the detection of genetic impairments like Down syndrome (DS). In practice, however, NIPT provides opportunities for intensified manipulation and control over women's reproductive decisions. Applying Miranda Fricker's concept of epistemic injustice to prenatal screening, this article analyzes how medical professionals impair reproductive decision-making by perpetuating testimonial injustice. They do so by discrediting positive parental testimony about what it is like to raise a child with DS. We argue that this testimonial injustice constitutes a twofold harm: (1) people with DS and their family members who claim that parenting a child with DS may be a rewarding and joyous experience are harmed when they are systematically silenced, disbelieved, and/or denied epistemic credibility by medical professionals, and (2) pregnant women are harmed since they might make poorly informed choices without access to all relevant information. The broader implication of the analysis is that epistemic justice is a precondition of reproductive autonomy. We conclude by calling for federal oversight of the acquisition and dissemination of information that prospective parents receive following a positive diagnosis of DS to ensure that it is comprehensive and up to date.

scholarly journals PROCEDURAL JUSTICE AND THE PROBLEM OF INTELLECTUAL DEFERENCE

Episteme ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Cognitive Bias ◽  
Epistemic Virtues ◽  
Epistemic Justice ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
Miranda Fricker

AbstractIt is a well-established fact that we tend to underestimate our susceptibility to cognitive bias on account of overconfidence, and thereby often fail to listen to intellectual advice aimed at reducing such bias. This is the problem of intellectual deference. The present paper considers this problem in contexts where educators attempt to teach students how to avoid bias for purposes of instilling epistemic virtues. It is argued that recent research in social psychology suggests that we can come to terms with this problem in two steps, the second of which involves educators communicating their intellectual advice in a procedurally just manner. The components of the relevant form of procedural justice are specified and related to Miranda Fricker and David Coady's notions of epistemic justice. Finally, a series of objections are considered and responded to.

The many faces of disability in evidence for policy and practice: embracing complexity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Rivas ◽  
Ikuko Tomomatsu ◽  
David Gough
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Research Recruitment ◽  
Combined Application ◽  
Models Of Disability ◽  
People With Disability ◽  
The Many ◽  
Evidence For Policy ◽  
Existing Data

Background: This special issue examines the relationship between disability, evidence, and policy.Key points: Several themes cut across the included papers. Despite the development of models of disability that recognise its socially constructed nature, dis/ableism impedes the involvement of people with disability in evidence production and use. The resultant incomplete representations of disability are biased towards its deproblematisation. Existing data often homogenise the heterogeneous. Functioning and impairment categories are used for surveys, research recruitment and policy enactments, that exclude many. Existing data may crudely evidence some systematic inequalities, but the successful and appropriate development and enactment of disability policies requires more contextual data. Categories and labels drawn from a deficit model affect social constructions of identity, and have been used socially and politically to justify the disenfranchisement of people with disability. Well rehearsed within welfare systems, this results in disempowered and devalued objects of policy, and, as described in one Brazilian paper, the systematic breakup of indigenous families. Several studies show the dangers of policy developed without evidence and impact assessments from and with the intended beneficiaries.Conclusions and implications: There is a need to mitigate barriers to inclusive participation, to enable people with disability to collaborate as equals with other policy actors. The combined application of different policy models and ontologies, currently in tension, might better harness their respective strengths and encourage greater transparency and deliberation regarding the flaws inherent in each. Learning should be shared across minority groups.

Where Is Disability in Global Public Health?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Krahn
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Models Of Disability ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Individual

Accounting for about 15% of the world’s population, persons with disabilities constitute a critical population. Despite a substantial knowledge base in disability and public health, persons with disabilities have been remarkably invisible within general global public health. Public health’s view of disability is shifting from regarding disability only as an outcome to prevent, to using disability as a demographic characteristic that identifies a population experiencing a range of inequities. Alternative models of disability reflect how disability has been viewed over time. These models vary in their underlying values and assumptions, whether the locus of disability is the individual or the environment or their interaction, who designates “disability,” and the focus of intervention outcomes. The United Nations flagship report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals, 2018 documents that, as a group, the lives of persons with disabilities are marked by large disparities in Sustainable Development Goal indicators. These include increased likelihood of experiencing poverty, hunger, poor health, and unemployment, and greater likelihood of encountering barriers to education and literacy, clean water and sanitation, energy, and information technology. Overall, persons with disabilities experience greater inequalities, and this is particularly experienced by women and girls with disabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters have highlighted the gaps in equality and consequent vulnerability of this population. Global disability data have improved dramatically during the decade from 2010 to 2020 with the advent of standardized disability question sets (Washington Group) and model surveys (Model Disability Survey). New studies from the Global South and North identify areas and strategies for interventions that can effectively advance the Sustainable Development Goals. This call-to-action outlines strategies for increasing visibility and improving wellbeing of persons with disabilities, particularly in the Global South. Increased visibility of the disability population within the global public health community can be achieved through active engagement of persons with disabilities. Improved collection of disability data and routine analysis by disability status can provide information vital to planning and policies. A twin-track approach can provide direction for interventions—inclusion in mainstream programs where possible, use of disability-specific and rehabilitation approaches where necessary. The article ends by outlining ways that multiple roles can increase the inclusion of persons with disabilities in global public health.

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