However I feel that the Social model has effectively failed to combat the
medical model precisely because although the intent may have been to remove
the faculty of less than equal from the individual to a facet of socieies
view of the individual, it is nonetheless grounded in some percieved
inequality of the individual which is renamed impairment.
Whilst the Social model persists in this particularly bizarre linguistic
heirarchy it is merely masking the medical model and has not detached from
it. It still seems to imply in a mechanistic way that the body (for that is
prinicply wherein the concept of impairment arises) falls somehow short of
its designed characteristics and capacity. What is more it still persists in
taking the individual with this impairment as disabled whereas the reality
is as I see it that the lable of disability applies to all who are percieved
as being disabled and therefore are dis abled on account of that. The
labling does not necessarily have to do with specific ideas of impairment
(itself deriving from the Union of Physically Impaired an organisation
ignoring common cause with other stigmatised gruops) the labling comes from
the notions of certain categories of humanity not being wholly human eg
idiots, mad, crippled, unproductive, ugly, queer etc ......
Larry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of A Velarde
> Sent: 07 March 2006 14:51
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Social vs. impairment models
>
>
> This is catch 22 situation as language will always reflect the
> episteme in
> which it belongs too. The term impairment , and any other term that was
> 'constructed' to show the oppressiveness of the medical model will have a
> short life. This is not a revelation. Lets not be confused by the term as
> the term was never intended to be an aim in itself.
>
> Postmodernist writers may want to consider their critics to the
> social model
> (I.e. Shelley Tremain) as post modernist without political materialism
> (Marxism-social model) is metaphysics, a the philosophy of ideas, as it
> best.
>
> Larry and those that feel very critical to the social model, particularly
> from the post modern front, need to come into terms that without
> compromising, without an strategic alliance with the social
> model, will end
> up -and this is the irony of life- supporting the medicalised model too.
> Foucault also cannot escape to genealogy after all.
> Andy
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