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Faster, higher, stronger? : disability sport, the paralympic games and the politics of disability
thesis
posted on 2017-08-14, 02:27 authored by Brook QuinnThis thesis argues that disabled people experience
marginalisation (beyond any disadvantage stemming from physical, mental or
sensory impairment) due to material and discursive structures within
contemporary capitalist society that define disability as an ‘individual
phenomenon’, treatable by medical intervention and strategies of
‘normalisation’ into mainstream economic, social and cultural values and
institutions. Drawing on the work of the critical ‘social model of disability’
and broader cultural studies’ concepts (including ‘cultural politics’,
‘identify’ and ‘difference’) the structural nature of ‘disability oppression’
is identified and analysed to place disability alongside gender, sexuality and
race ad important sites of political contest. Disability sport, the Paralympic
Games and disability’s representation in media culture provide a practical
context for these theoretical debates. Against the background of the 2000
Paralympics’ material success and disabled athletes’ increasing public
recognition, it is suggested that disability sport thoroughly naturalises
dominant perceptions of disability and reproduces the conservative material and
discursive structures of the ‘individual model of disability’. Moreover, as an form of ‘cultural projection’
(Merelman, 1995), disability sport affords, at the best, mixed images of
disabled people, providing little scope for the articulation of self-affirming
disabled identities and an autonomous ‘disability culture’. The significance of this thesis,
therefore, lies in its capacity to provide ‘new understandings’ of disability
sport and the politics of disability. In particular, it foregrounds the role of
interlocking material and discursive cultural politics in naturalising
individual perceptions of disability and demonstrates that disability sport and
the Paralympic Games, whilst exhibiting some potential to resist these forces,
largely reinforce and reproduce these inherently marginalising dynamics.
History
Principal supervisor
Pete LentiniYear of Award
2002Department, School or Centre
Political and Social InquiryCourse
Master of ArtsDegree Type
MastersFaculty
Faculty of ArtsUsage metrics
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