Disability Studies Gets Fat

Hypatia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mollow

This article invites disability scholars to “get fat,” that is, to support the goals of the fat justice movement. I argue that the contemporary politics of fatness can productively be read through the lens of disability studies’ social model. At the same time, I mobilize feminist critiques of the social model to push fat disability studies toward a more in‐depth engagement with the topics of health and illness. Additionally, I contend that feminist scholars’ accounts of our personal relationships to fatness and disability can make crucial contributions to our scholarly work. These arguments take shape within a new interpretive framework that I introduce: “setpoint epistemology,” which brings together the feminist disability studies notion of “sitpoint theory” and the scientific concept of “setpoint theory.”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait

<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>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Callan Sait

<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>


2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052094536
Author(s):  
Hana Porkertová

This article examines the everyday experience of visually disabled people with norms and normality and confronts it with three approaches discussed in disability studies: (i) the medical model, (ii) the social model, and (iii) critical disability studies. The most available model to the people in the study, as well as the most widespread approach in Czech society, is the medical model. However, the text shows that although other approaches are rather marginal, their logic is present in the everyday experience of the communication partners in the research. They can espouse the rigid, medical model, while, at the same time, confronting the construction of norms that both the social model and critical disability studies defy. This finding reveals both the normative and subversive character of disability, manifested in visually impaired experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mujde Koca-Atabey

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.


Author(s):  
Jesse Rathgeber

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-121
Author(s):  
Colin Cameron

In this article I discuss the affirmation model, initially proposed by Swain and French (2000), as an intervention in an ongoing debate within disability studies around the usefulness of the social model. I consider the purpose of developing models, such as the social and affirmation models, and identify the lack of definitions in Swain and French’s original suggestion as an inherent weakness. I then outline my own research, undertaken with the aim of identifying whether useful affirmation model definitions might be fashioned, and relate my conclusions to Freire’s idea of critical Praxis. I conclude by proposing the affirmation model as a practical tool for use by social workers to identify the ways in which disabling social relations are reproduced in everyday encounters..


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Cláudia Alquati Bisol ◽  
Nicole Naji Pegorini ◽  
Carla Beatris Valentini

 Nos estudos relacionados à deficiência, podem-se identificar com clareza duas perspectivas paradigmáticas que fundamentam as ideias e ações de pesquisadores e profissionais a partir da modernidade: o modelo médico e o modelo social. Atualmente, no entanto, percebe-se a emergência de críticas ao modelo social que se encaminham para o que possivelmente poderá se constituir em uma terceira perspectiva (denominada neste trabalho de pós-social). O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar princípios que norteiam a compreensão da deficiência considerando essas três perspectivas. Foram selecionadas publicações realizadas a partir da década de 1990 no Brasil, Europa Ocidental e América do Norte, utilizando-se os descritores inclusão escolar, sociedade inclusiva, direitos humanos e políticas públicas para pessoas com deficiência, paradigmas da deficiência, modelo médico, modelo social, estudos da deficiência e estudos feministas. Traçaram-se reflexões sobre os modelos por meio da identificação dos contextos sócio-históricos e das bases epistemológicas que os sustentam, e de algumas articulações com o campo da educação especial na perspectiva da inclusão. Problematizar esses modelos que coabitam os espaços sociais permite deslocamentos que possibilitem repensar as relações com a pessoa com deficiência nos diferentes contextos e instituições.Palavras-chave: Educação inclusiva. Estudos da deficiência. Modelo médico. Modelo social.THINKING ABOUT DISABILITY CONSIDERING THE MEDICAL, SOCIAL AND POST-SOCIAL MODELS Abstract: In the disability-related studies, one can clearly identify two paradigmatic perspectives which underlie researchers and professionals' ideas and actions from Modernity onwards: the medical model and the social model. Currently, however, we see the emergence of critiques regarding the social model moving towards what could possibly constitute a third perspective (called post-social in this paper). The present article aims to analyze the principles which guide the understanding of disability considering these three perspectives. Publications carried out from the 1990s in Brazil, Western Europe and North America were selected using the descriptors school inclusion, inclusive society, human rights and public policies for people with disabilities, disability paradigms, medical model, social model, disability studies and feminist studies. We attempted to trace reflections on the models by identifying the socio-historical contexts and the epistemological foundations that support them and by some articulations with the field of special education in the perspective of inclusion. To problematize these models which coexist in social spaces allows for shifts that may enable to rethink our relations with persons with disabilities in different contexts and institutions.Keywords: Inclusive education. Disability studies. Medical model. Social model. PENSAR LA DISCAPACIDAD A PARTIR DE LOS MODELOS MÉDICO, SOCIAL Y POS-SOCIALResumen: En los estudios relacionados con la discapacidad, se puede identificar con claridad dos perspectivas paradigmáticas que fundamentan las ideas y las acciones de los investigadores y profesionales a partir de la Modernidad: el modelo médico y el modelo social. Actualmente, sin embargo, se puede percibir la emergencia de críticas al modelo social que conducen a lo que posiblemente podrá constituirse en una tercera perspectiva (denominada en ese trabajo de pos-social). El presente artículo tiene como objetivo analizar los principios que embasan la comprensión de la discapacidad considerando esas tres perspectivas.  Fueron seleccionadas publicaciones realizadas a partir de la década de 1990 en Brasil, Europa Occidental e América del Norte, utilizando los descriptores inclusión escolar, sociedad inclusiva, derechos humanos y políticas públicas para personas con discapacidad, paradigmas de la discapacidad, modelo médico, modelo social,  estudios de discapacidad y estudios feministas. Se buscó trazar reflexiones sobre los modelos a través de la identificación de los contextos socio-históricos y de las bases epistemológicas que los sostienen, y de articulaciones con el campo de la educación especial en la perspectiva de la inclusión. Problematizar eses modelos que cohabitan los espacios sociales permite desplazamientos que posibiliten repensar las relaciones con la persona con discapacidad en los diferentes contextos e instituciones.Palabras clave: Educación inclusiva. Estudios de discapacidad. Modelo médico. Modelo social.


2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-806 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE OLDMAN

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.


Author(s):  
Michalina Grzelka

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.


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