Sociology of Disability - Syllabus

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Sociology of Disability
Instructor: Nirmala Erevelles - georgetown.edu/crossroads/syllabi/socdissyl.html
Course Description: Common-sensical understandings of disability have located it within the medical sciences where explanations pertaining to biology predominate. Such biological deterministic explanations have constructed the disabled individual as deviant, stigmatized, incompetent, and marginal. However, there have been several theories within sociological work that have rescued disability from its demeaning marginality and reconstructed more empowering definitions. Thus, in this course we will examine these critiques and re-constructions as produced through labeling theories, theories of deviance, theories of social reconstruction as explained through symbolic interaction, and theories that have argued for a sociology of acceptance. In addition, we will also examine how other sociological theories within feminism, marxism, anti-racism, poststructuralism, and gay/lesbian studies have also addressed issues around disability. Through this process we will attempt to link the construction of disability with the constructions of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, particularly as they all pertain to the current context of multiculturalism within the academy.

Course Objectives:
On completion of this course, class participants should have a general understanding of the debates within the sociology of disability including:

The many theoretical and interpretive frameworks that have been utilized to examine the social construction of disability.
A basic conceptual map of the historical, social, political, and economic conditions that have produced the condition of disability and their inter-linkages with other oppressive practices of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. Implications for practice in education and the human services.

Required Texts:
Foucault, M. (ed). 1974. I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother... Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Fine, M. and Asch, A. 1988. Women with Disabilities: Essays in Psychology, Culture, and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Morris, J. 1991. Pride against Prejudice: Transforming Attitudes to Disability. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
Paul, Dianne, 1995. Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 to the Present. New Jersey: Humanities Press.
Safford P. & Safford, E. 1995. A History of Childhood and Disability. NY: Teachers College Press.
Stone, Deborah. 1994. The Disabled State. Philadelphia. Temple University Press.

Course Schedule:
Introduction: A Conceptual Map of the Sociology of Disability
What are the commonsensical ways in which we understand Disability?
What would constitute a sociology of disability
What are the conceptual tools we would use to analyze disability in this course?
Introductory Lecture
Theoretical Lenses to Read Disability: Liberal Humanism/Marxism/Poststructuralism

Disability: The Politics of the Body
How does our society read the "disabled" body?
In what way does disability become a "political" concept?
What are the different ways in which disability is "officially" defined?
What are the implications of such definitions?

Required Reading:
Turner, B. Disease and Disorder.
Sarason and Davis. Mental Retardation: Social Invention and Transactional Phenomenon.
World Health Organization. Definitions of Disability and Handicap
Taylor, S. A Man Named August.

The Social Construction of Disability
How have liberal theories explained disability?
In what ways have these theories argued for a theory of disability that is socially constructed?
How have these theories influenced how the "able" world has understood people with disabilities?

Required Reading:
Erikson. K. Notes on the sociology of deviance
Dexter, L. On the politics and sociology of stupidity in our society.
Mercer, J. The clinical perspective.
Mercer, J. The social system perspective.

The Hegemonic Interests of Scientific Inquiry
What interests have been maintained by casting disability as a "medical condition?"
How has scientific inquiry produced disability as a "non-negotiable" construct within medicine?
How have other structures of inequality (race/class/gender/sexuality) been justified through the scientific discourses of disability?

Required Reading:
Paul, D. Controlling Human Heredity.
Lecture: Historical Constructions of Race/Class/Gender/Sexuality: Colonialism, Neocolonialism, and the New World Order

Identity Politics and Disability
How does class, gender, race, and sexuality complicate our understanding of disability?
How do we understand the notion of multiple oppression?
How can feminism, anti-racism, marxism, and the gay and lesbian movement address the challenges that disability poses?
What are the points of contention between these movements and the disability movement?

Required Reading:
Deegan, Mary Jo. Multiple minority groups: A case study of physically disabled women.
O.W. Stuart. Race and disability: Just a double oppression?
Begum, N. Disabled women and the feminist agenda.
Corbett, J. A "proud label": Exploring the relationship between disability politics and gay pride.
Lloyd, Margaret. 1992. Does she boil eggs? Towards a feminist model of disability.
Film: On the Eighth Day: Perfecting Mother Nature.

Special Education: A Disabling History
What has been the social history of disability?
In what ways have the meanings of disability changed over different historical periods?
What have been the effects of these histories on children with disabilities?
In what ways has the ideology of disability manifested itself through society's institutional structures?

Required Readings:
Safford and Safford, A History of Childhood and Disability.

Living Normal Lives!
What are the critiques that people with disabilities have made of their treatment by the "able" world?
In what ways do their critiques shape the traditional and alternative definitions of disability?
If people with disabilities are understood as active agents then how does this further politicize the field of disability?
Required Reading:
Biklen, D. & Duchan, J. "I am intelligent": The social construction of mental retardation.
Morris, J. Introduction; Chapter 1: Prejudice; Chapter 4: Disability in a Western Culture; Chapter 5: Segregation, Dependence, and Independence.

Disability within Postmodernism: Discourses of Power in Conflict
How can disability be theorized within postmodernism?
How do the discourses of power serve to "discipline" the body?
What implications do these theories have on the "definitions" of disability?

Required Reading:
Foucault, M. I, Pierre Riviere...
Video Presentation on the controversies over Facilitated Communication.

The State and the Political Economy of Disability
How has the economic system produced disability?
How do we understand notions of "work," productivity, and efficiency - as emphasized by the capitalist order?
How does the welfare state construct the category of disability?

Required Reading:
Nibert, D. The Political Economy of Developmental Disability.
Crawford, R. A cultural account of "health": Control release and the social body.
Farber, B. The mentally retarded as a surplus population. In Class Reader.
Stone, D. Introduction and Chapter 1. The Disabled State

Race, Class Gender And Disability: Competing Interests within the Welfare State
How does the welfare state regulate and contain the politics of difference?
How are the categories of race, class, and gender produced as antagonistic to the interests of disability?
What purposes do such antagonisms serve?

Required Reading:
Morris, J. Feminism and Disability.
Brown, H. & Smith, H. Whose "Ordinary Life" is it Anyway?
Graham, H. Caring: A Labor of Love.
Morris, J. Chapter 5: The Chance of Life; Chapter 6: Feminist Research and Community Care.

The Construction of "Deviant" Sexualities
What forms of sexuality are understood as deviant?
In what ways do the institutions of power control sexuality?
Which groups of people fall under their control?
What interests are preserved through such control?

Required Reading:
Greenberg, D. The medicalization of homosexuality.
Brown, H. An Ordinary Sexual Life?: A review of normalization as it applies to the sexual options of people with learning disabilities.
Asch, A. & Fine, M. Shared Dreams: A Left Perspective on Disability Rights and Reproductive Rights.

Packaging Disability for Popular Consumption
How does popular culture produce disability?
What tools can we use to critically examine the ideologies that such representations mask?

Required Reading:
Stone D. The myth of bodily perfection. In Class Reader..
Hahn, H. Can Disability be beautiful? In Class Reader.
Hahn, H. Advertising the acceptably employable image: Disability and capitalism.
Kent, D. In Search of a Heroine.
Video Presentation on Images of Disabled People in the Media.

Alternative Visions: Disability Rights and the New Social Movements
How can people with disabilities as their own advocates become transformative agents?
In what ways can an analysis that includes race, class, gender, disability, and sexuality contribute to the goal of social transformation?

Required Reading:
Scotch, R. Disability as a Basis for a Social Movement: Advocacy and the Politics of Self Definition.
Shakespeare, T. Disabled people's self-organization: A new social movement?
Morris, J. Chapter 7: Fighting Back & Chapter 8:Pride.
Oliver, M. The politics of disablement - Existing possibilities.

R415 Sociology of Disability, IUPUI, the Department of Sociology. An examination of current models of disability and of disability at the interpersonal and societal level. Topics include recent legal, social, and educational changes; the ways in which people with disabilities interact with the nondisabled; the role played by relatives and caregivers; and the image of people with disabilities in film, television, and other media. Recommended for students in nursing, education, physical and occupational therapy, and social work, as well as for the medical sociology minor. Available for graduate credit.

Anspach Renee R., 1979, Political Activism Among the Disabled and Mental Patients, in “Social Science and Medicine”, 13, pp.765-773.

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