all-- let me try to comment briefly on the "countries who don't
use...social model" issue raised here. I'll probably get it wrong, but
here goes.
In China (which, I realize, is not considered 3rd. word by some, but parts
of it are if you want to use Moderization as a yardstick) Anyhow,when I
was there (and I was quite a sight to behold in parts of the country with
my chair or without it), depending on who you talk to, the idea of social
construction was non-existant. And it was usually religious based where
certain sects still believe in divine something or other regarding
disability/gender. Society, as a whole, didn't comprehend anything about
their environment, social beliefs, etc as a "construction". No rehab
institutes, CIL's, women's shelters, support organizations, special
eduction programs. Everything was "because of fill-in-the-blank divinity,
or "just the way it is". And, if you were disabled in any way, well, you
could go to college but only if "You could take care of all your needs
yourself", i.e. if you fit into our model of independence and health. The
exceptions seemed to be veterans, but even many of those I saw were
homeless, asking the "rich" Americans for money/meals because well, "you
must have money if you can travel this far and bring *him* (meaning me)
with you." My folks and I got pretty good at scampering. Personally, I
think this kind of "we have no responsibility to X" is what allows the
killing of babies with disabilities, and girls, (Much quieter now, but
still happening). But that aside, I am not saying that people were not
aware of these issues and contradidtions and rebel openly or secretly
against the gov't. Or that changes don't happen. Deng Xiopeng's disabled
son helps but even he lives a catered and sheltered existance, and even he
doen't get that great attention-- when he travels, he has to have a nurse
on hand and a bed avialable within 10 minutes of any public appearance--
(bedsores likely). People at Cal were going to present him with a JAY
CUSHION, but we didn't want to insult the guy. But as a function of
government and govermental policy, I can't say that the social model was
employed in any tangible way.
--Johnson
>Sorry, lest this sound like a dialogue, but please allow me one more
>point on a related topic. I also remember a posting on this list last
>week, that said something like "countries where disability is not
>socially constructed." I don't understand that statement (if I have it
>accurately). It seems that what we have across countries are various
>bewhaviors and practices, reflecting various constructions of
>disability (or of other groupings, identities, soicial positioning).
>The construction is the idea about the phenomenon. I believe that
>disability (and pretty much everything we process mentally) is
>constrtucted, by which I mean it is "read" in a particular way, and
>that reading is determined by social forces. I understand that there
>are many places, within the US, and outside of it, where the use of
>social construction as a way of looking at the world is not employed.
>By using it as a tool for looking at people's experience, I am not
>imposing it on those who don't share my belief, anymore than I can say
>that others use of their perspectives and beliefs about me impinges on
>me. UNLESS - and this is an important unless, we apply those beliefs in
>practices and soical interactions that DO impose, intrude, oppress,
>discriminate etc.
> Simi Linton
>
>--- Mairian Corker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Simi wrote:
>> >I'm glad that Mairian brought up the idea of social
>> construction as a
>> >*tool* for examination of a phenomenon. i haven't
>> followed this whole
>> >discussion, but the bits i've picked up seem to use
>> the idea of social
>> >construction as if it were a way of living, rather
>> than as a
>> >perspective for examining the ways that disability
>> (or whatever
>> >label/identity/social positioning is operative in
>> the country under
>> >discussion) functions in a certain place. i don't
>> see how we can
>> >evaluate whether a particular culture/copuntry
>> "uses the social
>> >construction model."
>>
>> Thanks Simi. I think I would want to add and maybe
>> emphasise deconstruction
>> also, because parts of disability studies have
>> tended to give it a bad
>> name. Deconstruction is also a methodological *tool*
>> that is used by those
>> of postructural orientation in looking at
>> contextualised meaning in
>> language - it is not a tool of destruction. It urges
>> its practitioners be
>> careful and rigorous in how they interpret things
>> and why. Various
>> postmodern writers have pointed out that there is no
>> such thing as
>> deconstructionISM, nor indeed is there any such
>> thing as social
>> constructionISM because these things are not
>> doctrines or ideologies,
>> unlike modernism and its associated *tool*
>> structuralism, which have
>> assumed the status of metanarrative. I get very
>> frustrated when I read
>> disability texts that damn posmodernISM without
>> understanding that there is
>> no such thing (and yes, I did use that term myself
>> at one time, though I no
>> longer do so and I'm also very capable of accepting
>> SOME aspects of
>> materialist writing). Poststructural writers aim to
>> deconstruct
>> oppositional categories and universal 'truths' by
>> showing how the concept
>> of 'voice' becomes meaningless within the framework
>> of such categorising
>> since these categories exclude large swathes of
>> human experience. Yes, a
>> lot of people feel threatened by that, because it
>> means that nothing is as
>> clear cut as it seems. But then, isn't that how the
>> powerholders would like
>> us to think, just because it makes life easier for
>> them?
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>>
>> Mairian
>>
>>
>> Mairian Corker
>> Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability
>> Studies
>> Department of Education Studies
>> University of Central Lancashire
>> Preston PR1 2HE
>>
>> Address for correspondence:
>> 111 Balfour Road
>> Highbury
>> London N5 2HE
>> U.K.
>>
>> Minicom/TTY +44 [0]171 359 8085
>> Fax +44 [0]870 0553967
>> Typetalk (voice) +44 [0]800 515152 (and ask for
>> minicom/TTY number)
>>
>> *********
>>
>> "To understand what I am doing, you need a third
>> eye"
>>
>> *********
>>
>>
>>
>
>===
>|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|
>Simi Linton
>[log in to unmask]
>212 580 9280 (phone and fax)
>|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|
>
>_________________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
Johnson Cheu
[log in to unmask]
http://people.english.ohio-state.edu/cheu.1
The Ohio State University*English Dept.*421 Denney Hall*164 W. 17th. Ave.*
Columbus, OH 43210*(614) 292-1730 (O)*(614) 292-6065 (D)*(614) 292-7816 (Fax)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|