Hi
Jennifer wrote...
> Why must this us vs. them attitude be perpetuated? To whom is it
> helpful?
Then others replied and Mairian wrote about disabled researchers and...
> 'critical friends'
This seems a useful debate to have on this list. In many ways it
addresses some of the reasons why we established the list, and why I
felt it was worth maintaining. We wanted to make contacts with
like-minded academic reseachers and we wanted to open up the thinking
of academics to scrutiny and critique from the wider disability
community. By and large I think we've done quite well on both counts.
It is certainly the place where I have found most of my 'critical
friends' ;-).
There seem to be two debates here. One is about the right of disabled
people to pursue legitimate careers as independent academics (in
whatever discipline). The other is about the different paradigms for
disability research and about the politically engaged nature of
disability studies (or not). Perhaps we might consider them separately.
DEBATE 1:
Mairian (and John) are absolutely right to highlight the position of
disabled researchers in the first debate. The social relations of
research production are such that disabled researchers face a great
many barriers in establishing equivalent careers with non-disabled
researchers (although I perceive a real ground swell of change here).
It is unsurprising that many disabled academics have sought a career
allied to 'disability studies'. Not only for reasons of reflexive
theorising, but also because it really ought to be more accommodating
to disabled people than some other disciplines (I'm not sure that it
always is!). As a non-disabled researcher, I'm certainly aware that it
has often been easier for me to mobilise the resources and
produce the outputs necessary to establish and maintain a career
trajectory in academic research.
DEBATE 2:
Disability studies, it seems to me, draws its strength from a history
of politically-engagement with the self-organisation and the individual
struggles of disabled people in disabling societies. For me, as a non
disabled researcher, it is difficult to contemplate research into
social relations of power without wanting to use the research process
itself to try and address some of those inequalities. For me, that
means balancing my interest in theory and macro-social explanations
with local collaborative research projects that contribute to tangible
policy changes. Research production for me is a political activity as
well as an academic interest. I realise that isn't everyone's approach
but then you have to be prepared to justify it, without experiencing
too much 'existential guilt' (as Mike Oliver put it).
END NOTE:
All academics need 'critical friends' to keep them on their toes
(disabled and non-disabled alike). It's worth remembering that, as
academics, we are still the main critics of each other's work (rather
than people outside universities). Someone once told me that the
average readership of a refereed journal paper is about 7 people
worldwide! I have no idea if it's true but at least we're lucky that
people actually read disability research publications. Of course, the
critics also need to be aware of the likely impact of their criticism,
especially when they claim to support disabled researchers.
At the same time we researchers need to make every effort to put our
work 'out there', precisely so that people can make use of it and (yes)
criticise it. It is a privilege to have such a wonderful job and
criticism comes with the territory. To use an extended metaphor, this
means that it can get very hot in the research kitchen. The usual
research strategies are either to get out of the area or make salad.
However, as social model researchers, I hope we'd all agree that
ventilating the kitchen is a reasonable accommodation.
More debate...
Best Wishes
Mark Priestley
Disability Research Unit
University of Leeds
LEEDS
LS2 9JT
UK
Tel: +44 113 2334417/2334418
Fax: +44 113 2334415
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/sociology/dru/dru.htm
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