Hi Lillith,
At the risk of becoming entrenched in another listserv war (I can't
because I am currently dealing with 2 personal tragedies, so this will
likely be my final word on this topic for now), I feel compelled to
respond to this issue. I respect the position of some disabled people
that disability should only be researched by disabled people. Certainly
the experience of disability oppression cannot be directly experienced by
non-disabled researchers. As a non-disabled researcher researching
disability issues, I worried over this issue. I deal with it reflexively
and extensively in the 4th chapter of my dissertation (Shuttleworth,
2000). However, since sociocultural research for me is an existential
encounter and hermeneutic endeavor, objectivity is not part of the
equation: either the objectivity of some positivistically inclined
researcher or the objectivity assumed to be brought reflectively to the
experience of oppression by individual disabled people. I brought to
this research, certain skills and sensitivities whose focus became the
men's stories in the study I did on disability and sexuality. Although
their diverse understandings of negotiating sexual intimacy (and I must
emphasize diversity--there was no overall consensus on any of the
questions asked, see some of Corker's work on the issue of the diversity
of disabled people's experience and how consensus positions marginalize
outlier disabled voices) were framed by my many years of being a personal
assistant and anthropological/hermeneutic/phenomenological perspectives,
I did not fabricate their accounts, the major insights in fact coming
from them. I simply put these insights into a frame of reference beyond
the "natural attitude" of common sense understandings, so that some
underlying existential and sociocultural dynamics could be discerned that
may assist in the struggle to change social/aesthetic/functional
attitudes/understandings/perceptions of disability and sexuality. This
research has to be seen as fully collaborative. None of the men in the
study could frame the issues like I could as the unique kind of
researcher that I am, but I had not experienced the oppression and sexual
discrimination that the men had.
In the chapter, I criticize those who think that such complex issues as
many of those within the area of disability and sexuality can be solved
solely within a policy or emancipatory frame. When we are dealing with
cultural constructions/perceptions/understanding/attitudes the struggle
will be long and hard, as we must assault the culturally shaped
perceptions that are pre-reflectively experienced by most people in the
moment without forethought. Both disabled researchers and their
non-disabled researcher allies must devise new kinds of sociocultural
change strategies that change what most people consider to be the
personal preferences involved in choosing a partner to be sexually
intimate with.
Well, 'nuff said. Lilith, if you want me to email you this chapter,
please contact me off-line. Bye for now,
Russell
Russell Shuttleworth
Research Scholar
Human Sexuality Studies
San Francisco State University
6010 Sacramento Ave
Richmond CA 94904
510-527-2403
[log in to unmask]
which hopefully assists in connecting their individual struggles and
successes to some of the in love to a their issues
On Wed, 24 Jul 2002 20:49:19 +0000 LILITH Finkler
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
> Hi there, folks! Can anyone suggest articles/books etc that address
> issues
> related to disabled researchers researching disability? I am
> specifically
> interested in arguments which refute or challenge notions of
> "objectivity"
> and rational discourse in proposing that the researcher belong to
> the group
> being researched. Thanks, in advance, Lilith Finkler
> P.S. I have read many articles in Disability & Society. They are
> *great*,
> but I need other sources!
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger:
> http://messenger.msn.com
>
> ________________End of message______________________
>
> Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
> are now located at:
>
> www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
>
> You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|
