An Autobiographical critique of the category of disability

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dc.contributor.authorOverboe, James Royen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T16:37:11Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T16:37:11Z
dc.date.copyright1994en_US
dc.date.issued1994
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Sociology
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThroughout my life others have defined me as a disabled person, but I have never considered myself a disabled person. This thesis explores how this definition disregards my lived experience, including my cerebral palsy. Furthermore, I examine how the category of disability marginalises me by restricting me to this social location. Various sociologists and other scholars have noted two cultural sensibilities - modernism and postmodernism - that coincide with my lifetime. Each of these sensibilities marginalises people with disabilities by restricting us to the category of disability. This position contradicts the belief that postmodernism is an improvement over modernism's oppression of people with disabilities. My experiences of marginalisation are detailed in eighteen empirical vignettes which examine my experience with having a disabled body, and my experiences with the educational system. This autobiographical approach gives priority to my lived experience over the category of disability. Moreover it moves the debate between modernism and postmodernism from the high- theoretical position to the realm of everyday experience . Although autobiographical in nature, this thesis includes views of other people with a disability on the differing issues I raise. From the perspective of sociology this thesis employs both a theoretical critique of modernism and postmodernism and empirical evidence in order to specifically question the continued marginalisation of people with a disability. Generally, the thesis is a preliminary examination of how the facile categorisation of people by others continues to maintain the devaluation of others.en
dc.format.extent178 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19202
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleAn Autobiographical critique of the category of disabilityen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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