346 research outputs found
From Stoke Mandeville to Stratford: A History of the Summer Paralympic Games
Get PDFAs Aristotle once said, “If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.” When Dr Ian Brittain started researching the history of the Paralympic Games after beginning his PhD studies in 1999, it quickly became clear that there was no clear or comprehensive source of information about the Paralympic Games or Great Britain’s participation in the Games. This book is an attempt to document the history of the summer Paralympic Games and present it in one accessible and easy-to-read volume. From the outset, it should be made very clear that this book is not meant to be an academic text. It has always been the author’s intention that it should be a resource for anyone with an interest in the Paralympic Games, their history, or Great Britain’s participation in the Games. Through twelve years of research, the author has brought together all of the facts, figures, and interesting stories that have occurred in the development of the summer Games—from their roots at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the United Kingdom to the global mega-event they have become today. This is the first publication to include images of posters, winner’s medals, and other artefacts connected with the Games—some of which have never been seen in print. Every endeavour has been made to include all relevant information, and this text serves as an ideal starting point from which future researchers and historians may begin. As we have noticed recently with the increased documentation of Olympic history, it is the author’s hope that this text will inspire others to contribute to a more complete history of the Paralympic Games. A more complete history may lead to a better understanding of the importance of the Paralympic Games and their impact upon the lives of people with disabilities
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Perspectives of elite athletes with disabilities: problems and possibilities
Get PDFBrittain, Ian Stuart, Jul 2002.
Disability sport, and especially elite disability sport, has been all but ignored in terms of academic research in this country. This thesis, therefore, is an attempt to begin redressing this situation. It focuses on the Great Britain Paralympic track and field squad, that competed in the Sydney Paralympic Games between 18th and 29th October
2000. Through a series of in-depth interviews, which took a focused life history approach, the researcher attempted to gain a greater understanding of the kinds of factors, both positive and negative, that had an affect upon the lives of these athletes from the time they first took up the sport of athletics to the present day. In line with current research in the field of disability studies it adopts a social construction approach. The results of the analysis are set within the social model of disability in order to try and highlight the impacts of the perceptions of disability, embedded in the dominant medical model discourse, on these athletes' attempts to get involved and
progress within the sport of athletics. Key findings highlighted by this research are the major influence that the medical model discourse of disability has on the perceptions of large areas of the able-bodied population with regard to disability in general and disability sport in particular. Able-bodied perceptions of disability greatly influence
not only to what extent people with disabilities are able to operate within the society they live in, but also how they view themselves and their own abilities. This research also highlights some of the ways these socially constructed perceptions of disability are recreated and reinforced. In keeping with the emancipatory approach adopted for
this research, the athletes were given the opportunity to comment upon an initial draft of the research findings. This was an attempt to be inclusive and keep the participants informed. Also it was an attempt to try and portray as accurate and as authentic
account of the sporting life of an athlete with a disability as is possible. Throughout this thesis the researcher attempts to give an open and reflective account of the whole research process in order to make the reader aware of the possible effects of the researcher's own background on the research outcomes. In conjunction with the
athletes, suggestions are made about how to better inform policies or strategies for British disability sport in general and disability athletics in particular
A necessary fiction: The ritualisation of stakeholder practices in New Zealand cinema
No full textThis thesis argues that stability of the concept ‘national cinema’ is located in the discursive positioning of individual films in such a way that they are connected to a national ‘common ground’, one which is ritually accessed via engagement with media such as cinema. This positioning, however, is not quantifiable and may not be identified as arising from any particular production practice, dimension of popularity, theme, style, characteristic of production personnel, and so on. By synthesising the work of several theorists and applying this synthesis to a selection of films, a framework of ideas (around the ritualised ‘flagging’ of the national via the expression of stakeholder interests) is applied to cinema in New Zealand. In particular, an ideoscape is ultimately mapped as a result of applying this framework of ideas. The normative assumptions of national cinema are examined in this way and found to be lacking despite the weight that the term ‘national cinema’ continues to have
192 - Ian Cook McLean
No full textCurrently, most in vitro experimental models of the intestine rely upon cell lines, and consequently, lack the diverse representation of cells present in vivo. Slices of intestine, removed from living organisms, offer a better representation of in vivo physiology. However, current techniques for maintaining intestinal tissue in vitro are not capable of recapitulating the in vivo environment.
This project utilizes 3D printing and microfluidic principles to design a device that delivers differential flows of media across the two surfaces of intestinal tissue. The device will enable the investigation of complex biological questions that previous models have been unable to address
South Africa, apartheid and the Paralympic Games
No full textSouth Africa was excluded from the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games over their government's apartheid policies, before being finally expelled from the Olympic Movement in 1970. In contrast, South Africa first competed in the International Stoke Mandeville Games, which in an Olympic year became known as the Paralympic Games, in 1962. South Africa continued to compete until 1985 (although they had been excluded from both the 1980 and 1984 Paralympic Games) when they were finally expelled from the movement despite having competed with a racially integrated team since 1975. This article looks at some of the events and issues, particularly the influence of international politics, which led to their exclusion and eventual expulsion from the disability sports movement, despite the claims by both the South African team and the organizers of international disability sport that the fully racially integrated team was challenging apartheid by setting an example for others to follow. Publisher statement: This is an electronic version of an article that was published in Sport in Society © 2011 Copyright; Taylor & Francis. Sport in Society is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430437.2011.614773
The evolution of the Paralympic Games
Get PDFThe wheelchair Games held in Rome in 1960 are now accepted as the first Paralympic Games, although at the time they were known as the Ninth International Stoke Mandeville Games. However, it took some decades for the Paralympic Games to establish both their name and their contemporary identity
The Paralympic games explained
Get PDFThe Paralympic Games is the second largest multi-sport festival on earth and an event which poses profound and challenging questions about the nature of sport, disability and society. The Paralympic Games Explained is the first complete introduction to the Paralympic phenomenon, exploring every key aspect and issue, from the history and development of the Paralympic movement to the economic and social impact of the contemporary Games. The book introduces the three most important theoretical models of disability (medical, social and bio-social), to enable the reader to fully understand the Paralympics in the context of wider discussions of disability in society. It also offers a straightforward explanation of the importance of language and terminology in shaping our understanding of disability and disability sport. Including international examples and comparative material throughout, the book offers detailed and broad-ranging discussion of key issues such as: •how societal attitudes influence disability sport •the governance of Paralympic and elite disability sport •the relationship between the Paralympics and the Olympics •drugs and technology in disability sport •classification in disability sport. Containing useful features throughout, such as review questions, study activities, web links and guides to further reading, The Paralympic Games Explained is the most accessible, comprehensive and thoughtful guide to the Paralympics currently available. It is essential reading for all students with an interest in disability sport, sporting mega-events, the politics of sport, or disability in society
The evolution of the Paralympic Games
Get PDFThe wheelchair Games held in Rome in 1960 are now accepted as the first Paralympic Games, although at the time they were known as the Ninth International Stoke Mandeville Games. However, it took some decades for the Paralympic Games to establish both their name and their contemporary identity
Beauty for the Present: Mill, Arnold, Ruskin and Aesthetic Education
Get PDFThe present thesis examines the idea of aesthetic education of three eminent Victorians: John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin. By focusing on the essence of what they meant with ‘the cultivation of the beautiful’ and, more importantly, the way their ideas of beauty informed their criticism of society, my study aims to contribute to our understanding of the idea of aesthetic education in the Victorian context and, further, to participate in a recent debate about the nature of beauty and aesthetic education.
Chapter One focuses on John Stuart Mill’s concept of ‘feeling’ in a series of essays. I will demonstrate how Mill’s idea of ‘aesthetic education’ was an ‘education of feelings,’ and moreover, how this idea was integrated into his literary criticism, his later critique of democratisation, his description of an ideal liberal society and even his own style of writing. Chapter Two contains a comparative study of Matthew Arnold and Friedrich Schiller. Through a rereading of Arnold, I will argue that his idea of aesthetic education is essentially Schillerian and that their resemblance consists primarily in their stress on the importance of aesthetic unity for modern life, which was becoming increasingly fragmentary and multitudinous. Chapter Three examines John Ruskin’s idea of aesthetic education and concentrates particularly on the cultivation of perception. Perception, as I shall show, was pivotal in Ruskin’s idea of aesthetic education. Just as what happened in Mill and Arnold, the emphasis on the education of seeing continued from his early writings well into his art and social criticisms. It not only differentiated him from his fellow art critics; the conviction that people should perceive with a pure heart also enabled him to link observation of artistic details with moral criticism of contemporary society and, thereby, to turn the cultivation of the beautiful into a moral-aesthetic experience
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