Andrea
I wrote a short piece about the performance of the 1981 Ian Dury song 'Spasticus Autisticus' by Graeae Theatre at the Paralympics opening ceremony on my website, which might be of interest to some of your readers? In the context of the list discussion, it might be more in the range of the 'cultural olympiad' events rather than specifically competitive sport
http://georgemckay.org/spasticus-autisticus-at-the-paralympics-opening-ceremony/
George
Prof George McKay
Director, CCM Research Centre
University of Salford
MediaCityUK
Salford Quays
Manchester M50 2HE, UK
tel +44 (0)161 295 2694
mob +44 (0)779 1077 074
georgemckay.org
IASPM (UK&I) 2012 conference
Imagining Communities Musically
MediaCityUK, Salford, 5-7 September
________________________________________
From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Andrea Bundon [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 September 2012 19:07
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Paralympics represents apartheid in sport.
HI all,
My PhD research is on the use of social media and internet technologies within the Paralympic Movement. In keeping with David's comment encouraging Paralympians to engage with the movement, my project includes a blog where current and former Paralympians can debate and discuss issues related to disability sport and the future of the Paralympics. The 'blog team' includes 5 Canadian Paralympians - I believe one athlete was coached by David (I think I have that right?) and two athletes just won bronze in London. We take turns writing the posts and recruiting guest bloggers. Once the post is up, we all try to direct readers to the site and encourage them to share their comments and join in the conversation. You can read the blog and find out more about the project at www.athletesfirst.ca
Right now there is a great guest post written by sociologist Toni Bruce. She wrote a piece based on original research she has conducted in New Zealand on how Paralympians are portrayed in NZ print media. I think she has some really interesting findings on how narratives of nationalism and disability interact.
Anyway - right now Toni's post is attracting a lot of readers but has yet to generate comments! We are looking for people to share examples of media coverage from London 2012 - along with comments and critiques of the coverage. If you would care to join the conversation please visit www.athletesfirst.ca - we would love to hear what you have to say! (Also - suggestions for future topics are always appreciated and we are always on the lookout for more guest bloggers).
Thanks,
Andrea
On 2012-09-01, at 11:16 PM, David Howe wrote:
> Hi,
>
> By its very nature sport is exclusionary. It has always been based on achieving the aims: higher, faster and stronger. Not all impairment groups are included in the Paralympic Games and certainly not all those eligible will have the physical talent to be involved at the highest level. Combining the Olympics and Paralympic into one movement does not remove the exclusion associated with high performance sport.
>
> The Paralympic Movement is far from perfect. It is my belief that there need to be more former Paralympians involved in the running of the movement and the stars of London 2012 have to be encouraged to take an interest in the movement during their time as athletes so that in retirement they can harness their energies on making the movement better!
>
> Best
>
> David
>
>
> Dr. P. David Howe
> Senior Lecturer in Anthropology of Sport
> Sport Culture and Policy Lead
> Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport
> School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
> Loughborough University
> UK LE11 3TU
>
> http://www.peterharrisoncentre.org.uk/David_Howe.html
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Keith Armstrong
> Sent: 02 September 2012 05:18
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The Paralympics represents apartheid in sport.
>
> The Paralympics represents apartheid in sport. If they really want to address the issue of exclusion of disabled people in society, we need to have one Olympics that includes all sports played by people who are interested in sport. Of course for the events we have to be fair and all contestants need to be roughly equal, so there needs to be women's events, men's events and events with people with physical impairments.
>
> To allow a company that is implicated in the deaths of over thirty disabled people to be one of the sponsors of the Paralympics is unforgivable. This fact alone reveals that the organizers of Paralympics do not want any real positive change in society for the vast majority of disabled people.
>
> Much is made (by the media) of the origin of the Paralympics being the Stoke Mandeville games, however they used to break the Glenn Eagles Agreement and allowed wounded South African soldiers to participate in the sports, many of the South African team got their physical impairments in Anglo while trying to invade. This was successfully challenged by disabled people by taking direct action in the early 1980's and the connection with Apartheid sport was finally broken.
>
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