97 research outputs found
Handicap en de Paradox van ‘Empowerment’: Handicapondersteuning in Zuidoost-Nigeria
No full textDisability and the Paradox of 'Empowerment': Disability Support in Southeast Nigeria
Name: Okechukwu (Vincent) Nwokorie
Supervisor: Prof. (Dr). Patrick Devlieger
Members of Doctoral Guidance Committee: Prof. Dr. Mark Breusers (University of Leuven); Prof. Dr Pieter Verstraete (University of Leuven)
SUMMARY
The concept of disability invokes an image of some flaws in the natural order. Stereotypes of everyday mean that the disabled person is often infantilised as fragile and in need of protection. To better understand to what extent disability may be characterised by fixed attributes, this work examines discourses on disability in Southeast Nigeria.
Although Nigeria is home to an estimated 19 million persons living with disability, the country does not have disability legislation. Challenges associated with some disabilities mean that immediate and extended family members take on the role of (unpaid) caregivers to family members with a disability. Overall, 'empowerment' is the generic name for ad hoc support services for disabled persons on Nigeria. In it, the elites of the local community, church groups, philanthropic organisations, local NGOs and politicians play leading roles. Special events such as anniversaries, Christmas seasons, wealthy people's birthdays, investitures of new titles and campaigns prior to general elections often create occasions for ad hoc practices of disability support.
By using interviews, (participant) observation, and (archival) documents with the network of disability organisations, policy makers and social service workers in Okohia and its environs in Southeast Nigeria, I followed 'empowerment' programmes and disabled persons' experiences of both empowerment and disability. Adapting Tim Ingold's 'world of materials' lens (Ingold, 2010, 2011a, 2013), the results of the study show that empowerment practices are forms of cultural 'performance' or 'drama,' which re-enforces the boundary of 'difference' and the fixed locations of the benefactors and beneficiaries of 'empowerment'. However, the ambiguity of disability means that this boundary is porous and difficult to maintain.
The research concludes that 'empowerment' practices provide platforms for local elites and disability elites to 'ride' to fame on the backs of ordinary disabled persons to extend their own influence in the society. The name of 'disability' provides validation for the work of disability NGOs, yet disability NGOs in Nigeria lack quality control because they are not accountable in terms of full disclosure of records of funds received from donors and the patterns of their expenditures. The rise of 'empowerment' in Nigeria is part of the transformation of disability support infrastructure in which 'empowerment' is used to 're-attire' local cultural practices with the 'costume of modernity'. Findings of this research have opened the door for further conversations about more effective approaches to disability support in Nigeria.status: Publishe
Book Review: Blindness and the Multi-Sensorial City
No full textEditors: Patrick Devlieger, Frank Renders, Hubert Froyen, and Kristel Wildiers
Reviewer: Michael L. Dorn
Publisher: Antwerp: Garant, 2006.
ISBN: 90-441-1739-4, 372 pages
Cost: $97.50 USD [email protected]
‘Dis/ability’ als een opkomende wereldgebonden identiteit: Im/materiële verwikkelingen van Congolese personen in Kinshasa en de diaspora
No full textThis work is grounded in the ‘alongly integrated knowledge’ of people from Kinshasa, the capital of DR Congo, and Belgium who identify with the condition of physical impairment. The research has mainly been an exercise in thinking about something that seems rather limited in relation to something that appears to be unbounded.
This anthropological research starts from corporeality or the lived (co-)experience. The main participants in this research are people with a visible physical impairment. A combination of different qualitative research methods are used such as multi-sited fieldwork in Kinshasa, DR Congo, and Belgium; narrative analysis; following the ‘thing’; participant observation; documenting, interviews; and (evocative) writing. During the research the focus was on feelings of otherness, and the idea of being different.
Many researchers have reflected about the difficulty to not only grasp ‘disability’ as a concept but also as a ‘lived reality’. This study examines the grounds from which it emerges as an identity for the people involved in my research. Thus, I examine the ‘appearance’ of ‘dis/ability’ within a particular environment, and argue that a critical analytic disentanglement of those things that bring it into appearance, can throw light onto and at the same time critique a contemporary global environment that ‘manufactures’ particular ‘personae’. What mechanisms make that ‘no-thing’ becomes some-thing? How does a person with impairment become a person with a dis/ability in a global environment?
In general, this research is about following ‘things’ and ‘lines’. I search for knots when lines entangle. These knots appear as ‘things’, and the dis/abled body is such a thing. Knots are the result of ‘bindings’. To explore how a human being with a bodily difference relates to an environment I adopted an Ingoldian-Hodderian perspective of meshwork and entanglement. How do people become some‘thing’? Or, how does ‘dis/ability’ emerge from a (global) environment? Standpoint Theory and Entanglement Theory are used to study how things come into ‘being’ in an ‘open’ environment and become complex lived realities. The approach is rhizomatic and experimental.
The main aim of the research is to show the (rhizomatic) complexity of these entanglements and especially how much is lost when someone is reduced to (and reproduced as) one single ‘thing’.
My objective in this work is to give more insight into what it means to be a person with impairment in a global environment; how do people with an impairment (creatively) engage with the ‘global’? To what extent are possibilities to enable a future in a global environment bound to a specific body entangled with its environment? To answer these questions I use different points of entry to think about ‘dis/ability’ as simultaneously local and global. It is my thesis that ‘dis/ability’ (identity) is experienced as a time-space compression and that it emerges as a (global) biosocial form of being in the world.status: Publishe
Making Space for the Other: Auto-ethnographic Stories and Self-reflections about Life in Flemish Institution for People with an Intellectual Disability
No full textMaking Space for the Other: Auto-ethnographic Stories and Self-Reflections about Life in a Flemish Institution for People with an Intellectual Disability This research departs from the alienation I experienced in the course of fieldwork as a caregiver in a Flemish institution for people with an intellectual disability. Alienation is considered as a tool in social and cultural anthropology to obtain scientific knowledge and insights. It is a precondition that enables to relate with the strangeness of the other. This research further investigates this claim, and seeks to give an answer to the question what this means for the discipline of anthropology and the care given to people with an intellectual disability. Alienation embraces in this research a double movement: on the one hand is refers to a clash between the self of the researcher and the other (amongst others, the special culture of the institution, view of and interaction with the disabled body, intrusive smells and strange noises, bodily fluids). In this stage, the self of the researcher is locked up in an enclosed mental world which can be considered as a static entity that is merely surrounded by impenetrable boundaries. In the second movement, an intense exchange takes place between the researcher caregiver and the institutional surrounding. This interplay takes place in a space-in-between, an open and creative mental space. Attention here is focused on the performance of the researcher caregiver and the way he understands, interprets and create meaning through a simultaneous internal dialogue. The internal or subjective perspective of the researcher caregiver comprises two ethnographic parts: the first part consists of the hard data of the institution, meaning the functioning of the system of care, including an understanding of routine, recursive space-time structures and protocol; the second part maps the framework of reference of the researcher - caregiver. The first part translates the aim of the institution to make a balanced living environment that prevents residents and staff members to collide continuously with the side effects of intellectual and/or physical impairments. The pursuit of this utopian state of balance is described as the model of institutional balance. The researcher caregiver distinguishes three dynamics that sustain the continuity of this model: anticipate reinterpret improvise. The second part portrays the researcher caregivers experience and perception of the institutional environment. This part is described as the invisible world of the institution. It occurs underneath the skin and in the mind of the observer. It illustrates that subjective experiences of the researcher caregiver link up with the institutional life. However, it should be stressed that the two ethnographic parts make up an organic whole. Their interference is described from the point of view of the researcher caregiver. Auto-ethnographicstories and self-reflections are the building blocks of this research. This resulted in a self-willed style of writing consisting out of a collection of different texts (subjective stories, theoretical considerations, excerpts of files, notes, reports). A connection is sought between the subjective, the cultural and the theoretical level. These perspectives together constitute the framework of reference by which the institutional setting was perceived and coherently presented. Writing auto-ethnographic stories and self-reflections is a relevant strategy to portray the process of mental growth of the researcher caregiver. It also generates an additional perspective about the figure of the resident, namely as a giver of knowledge and information. Placing the resident in this position however requires a redefinition of the traditional understanding of care. Residents with an intellectual disability can only be depicted as givers when the caregivers identify themselves as receivers. In the current system of care this perspective is neither a theme nor a practice. This research formulates some of the conditions to further enhance a critical introspection of the institutional way of thinking and acting.status: Publishe
Administrative (De)Centralization and the Governing of Borderlands: Towards Transmodern Governance in Belgium and DR Congo
No full textThis chapter investigates processes of decentralization in Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Evolutionary governance should take account of the unique legacies of modernism and national, regional and transnationla governance, and go beyond the post-modern debunking of modernism and its myths of universality and rationality. For EGT analyses of the long term and large scale, the concept of trans-modernity, distinct from post-modernity, can structure the assessment of positive and negative legacies of modernisms and modernity. The chapter further argues for the inclusion of the concepts of borders and borderlands in EGT, as spatial concepts and spatial metaphors.status: Publishe
Grassroots community-based inclusive education. Exploring educational prospects for young people with disabilities in the post-conflict Rwandan communities.
No full textSummary The journey through the study on Grassroots community-based inclusive e ducation and its outcomes has been considerably shaped by the field. Th e earlier déjà-vu attitudes about the Rwandan society and its socio-cu ltural context that the researcher had always been part of, was sensitiv ely changed through the exposure to a number of interventions in the fie ld and experiences within the communities surveyed. It is along this jou rney that new outlooks on the communities of the disabled Rwandan childr en in general, and on approaches required to meet their educational chal lenges and needs in particular, kept emerging. Our stance now, is in lin e with the search for innovative educational approaches that are able to alter the traditional strategies and deliver more access to inclusive l earning opportunities for disabled children, in the face of a wide range of challenges. The case studies highlighting achievements in circumstances that are app roximately similar to those in Rwanda have been deliberately discussed, presenting a wide spectrum of approaches and strategies, ranging from mi cro to macro frameworks of interventions. We learn from these that to be effective, the approaches of a program that is promoting inclusive educ ation of disabled children need to be both flexible and widely encompass ing. For example, some of the emerging lessons on ways to include disabl ed children through community-based programs are likely to involve: Enlisting and enhancing the community members support, beginning with t he most effectively involved family and community members, by empowering them with the means to understand better the needs of their disabled ch ildren. Developing an enabling environment in which disability concerns would be mainstreamed into development frameworks. To ensure sustainability, it is also important that an organisational su pport framework comprising of the local government, civil society organi sations and the private sector or NGOs, as well as disabled people thems elves, be developed. All the stakeholders in the inclusion program should be equipped in term s of relevant awareness, capacities and resources. The inclusion project for disabled children can be accomplished in situa tions of extreme poverty of the Rwandan communities if a vulnerability perspective is integrated in all aspects of community-based develo pment programs. Hence, disability issues much like gender being socially cross-cutting, ought to be incorporated in all stages of the project (d esign and appraisal, implementation, reviews, monitoring and evaluation) . Finally, owing to historical, systemic and physical barriers, disabled c hildren, especially the severely disabled, can only be part of the inclu sion process if they are considered within the mainstream education refo rm process. In this way, the inclusion processes will be empowered with provisions, not only to cater for educational needs, but also involving a safety net system that ensures sustainable education within the wider spectrum of other needs. In other words, the study does not recommend any defined model of inclus ive education program for the Rwandan children with disabilities; rather , through highlighted cases and discussed experiences, it proposes a num ber of considerations and principles for both practitioners and policy m akers. The emerging position thus, suggests a dialogue between the communities (or beneficiaries) and various actors contributing to inclusive activiti es. Engagement into a dialogue entails both the community and practition ers taking a position where they are able to evaluate each others chall enges and inputs to inclusive initiatives, and a constructive feedback f rom either side be shared. By privileging a dialogue therefore, the comm unity-based inclusion undertaking would allow support from both experts and local community, whose initiatives would be assured. It is under suc h conversations that despite the numerous economic and social limitation s and challenges in the remote Karamoja in Uganda and Douenza in Mali (i n case study 3), the local people, respective governments and NGOs were able to develop successful educational projects with inclusion perspecti ve. The peoples inputs included the promotion of their cultural values, fostering their nomadic way of life, and when these were adopted in the curriculum, they felt part of the educational project to which they owe d the obligation of support, thus, the engagement in a dialogue with sup portive NGOs and the Government became part of the initiative. In this w ay, the level of functional literacy and numeracy was raised considerabl y, social and basic technological skills found their place in the local curriculum, and appropriate ways of including the most marginalised grou ps such as girls and disabled children were proposed and developed with the support and means of the local communities. Our understanding from this study is that every human society is endowed with inherent potential and power to support its own disadvantaged peop le. These powers are identifiable within the cultural way of life at eve ry grassroots community level. Thus, the study suggests that an inclusiv e education model building on such potentials is the most sustainable be cause it draws from the local means and know-how, and is able to underst and more accurately the needs of the community. It is on such notions th at Fugayerollas (2000) model of intervention (In Fig. 20 & 21), an d proven experiences in remote African villages shared by Ingstad (1997) , Vanneste (1997) and Stubbs (2002), jointly suggest a revisit to potent ials available within families and local communities of disabled childre n, because they are inherently endowed with cultural mechanisms with whi ch disadvantaged groups find support. The idea being emphasised does not rule out the existence of limitations, rather, it warns that poverty an d politically motivated challenges are enormous, and these cannot be ove rcome without mobilising enhancing and enlisting the support of those wh o have the first hand experience. We have pointed out for example hat the government commitment is practic ally unknown at the Rwandan grassroots community levels (See Fig. 17). B ecause of this phenomenon, we expressed scepticism about the possible su ccess of the national policy on Inclusive Education and Special Needs Ed ucation (SNE/IE), scheduled for this September 2006. We argued that the fact that for such an important policy to appear 17 years after the Chil ds Rights declaration, 16 years after the Jomtien declarations on Univ ersal Primary Education, and 12 years after the Salamanca statement on i nclusion, are all testimonies of a culture of procrastination of fundame ntal issues in Rwanda. Therefore, given this cultural trend, and the poo r channel of communication available among Rwandans as demonstrated by t he study, there are no evidences that the due inclusion policy will be c orrectly translated and quickly transmitted to the grassroots communitie s. In a way, we underlined the wide gap between the policy making level (organs) and the grassroots community level on issues related to disabil ity and inclusion, or an urgent need for putting in place an effective i mplementation program able to mediate between the two levels, capable of drawing and maintaining support from both. In the study, we also stressed policy frameworks and programs that are s upportive of inclusive education of disabled children in the neighbourho od schools. The central point however is not about what works best, but rather, about what is socially and functionally capable of generating op portunities, or what imposes barriers and therefore how can the former b e useful in counteracting the latter in order to achieve the best possib le access (or inclusion) for the disabled children in their neighbourhoo d school. It has been proposed in the emerging inclusion model in sectio n 11.1 above for example, that rehabilitation centres and schools in the same communities should be able to open doors to each other, in order t o foster an integrated education system that is supportive of both the d isabled and the non-disabled children in the same setting. However, we a rgue that the success of such a setting is also dependent on the extent to which both the people in the community and the means available to the m are mobilised for the cause. In Rwanda, it may mean how religious orga nisations are supportive and coordinated for example, how the local lead ers and educators are able to understand and support the educational nee ds of the children with disabilities, how peer groups are enabled to fun ction with disabled youths in mutual support of each other. We have thus stressed and demonstrated that for ideas about inclusion to gain a foothold within the Rwandan grassroots communities, sensitisatio n is very crucial. We suggested an approach that responds to questions s uch as, who needs to be sensitised about inclusion most? Who can most effectively alter the communitys negative ways and imp art the positive thinking? How can the community be reached b est? The guiding principle is the need for transmission of adequate a wareness about disabilities and inclusion, and reaching as many people a s possible. Accounts on the plausible techniques to reach and change the dominant attitudes in the communities were apparent in a number of prev ious instances discussed above: § When the influential o ld lady who was popular in the community for her skills in local medicin e changed her attitude about disability for example, the results sent ph enomenal sensitising messages to the whole community, and the local peop le drastically changed from negative perceptions to total support of the social workers proposal of appropriate services. The latters work in sensitisation was made easier (In the extract in section 7.2.4). § In the same way, the c riteria set (in the study) for the selection of the informants among the social workers, are also examples of channels to be used for sensitisat ion. They stressed selecting those who are most effective and capable of reaching, understanding and changing the community (In the roles of Inn oc & Mama ARU in section 6.1.1). Being religious for example (In se ctions 7.1-7.3), being disabled or being an aware mother of a disabled c hild were some of the determinant factors on which criteria to chose eff ective informants or social workers were based, because these were also means by which the community was reached and understood. § The link between disab ility and some dominant religious beliefs in some communities were also found to be influential factors in determining what decisions are taken for disabled children by parents (In section 7.2 & Fig. 12). This p henomenon suggests that sensitisation programs can also be effective if they are integrated within the local religious practices and programs (I n the role of ISAKs clergy father in section 7.1). These and a few other examples in the study, all emphasise the idea that the problem of perception about disability is fundamental and unique in Rwanda, depending on the circumstances and communities, and if the issu e of inclusion of the disabled children has to be successful, then an ap propriately fitting method of sensitisation has to be devised. It was admitted however, that all the theories and claims discussed abov e, do not necessarily present the precise scale of the problems that the children with disabilities face, nor any feasible response to their nee ds, rather, it emphasises the process and procedures that might guide in clusive action within the limits and means of the Rwandan society. In ot her words, it will be understood that this study reflects strongly on th e normative research paradigm, representing an investigative journey thr ough complexities of the Rwandan communities in search of pointers to in clusive phenomena. In a way, we concur with Cohen et al.s (2003: 22) vi ew that human behaviours in any society are often associated with normat ive paradigms because they are rule governed, thus, research approaches used in the study were devised in response to the rules that govern the Rwandan society as affirmed by Cohen et al.(2003):
normative researchers try to devise general theory of human behaviour and to validate them through the use of increasingly complex r esearch methodologies
To them, the basic reality is the collectivity; i t is external to the actor and manifest in society, its institutions and its organisations
the researchers ultimate aim is to establish a compr ehensive rational edifice, a universal theory, to account for human an d social behaviour (p. 23). It will thus be understood that our study approach has underlined the co mplex problems that surround a substantial number of children who are ex cluded from the mainstream Rwandan education and consequently from meani ngful participation in the economic, social, political and cultural life of their society, pointing to feasible paths to explore towards their i nclusion. We share the argument apparent in the Dakar World Education Fo rum of April 2000 in its paragraph 19, that the need to address the vuln erabilities of learners who are marginalised and excluded from education al opportunities is urgent (UNESCO, 2000), and it asserts that:
In order to attract and retain children from marginalized and excluded groups, education systems should respond flexibly
must be inc lusive, actively seeking out children who are not enrolled, and respondi ng flexibly to the circumstances and needs of all learners
(U NESCO World Education Forum on Education For All, Para. 33). The idea raised by the extract also calls for studies that are tailored to different environments and situations. However, we recognise that thi s study has not been able to address the many specific issues related to inclusive developments in Rwandan education. In fact it was established by the present study that the understanding of childrens disabilities and related issues are a function of social, cultural and economic facto rs, and therefore the study does not address many of these. We are aware that an educated mother is likely to be conversant with primary health care (including awareness about disabilities and reproductive health) fo r example, while non-educated mothers are more likely to be influenced b y the traditionally established perceptions about disability. In other w ords, the assumption that the parents level of education has a role to play in influencing the kind of services chosen for their disabled child ren is also founded, and demands to be investigated further (See Appendi x B & table 7). Likewise, issues related to specific methods and ad apted materials were not looked into. We thus suggest that future studie s will have to take care of some of these and the influences they have o n disabled childrens lives and their subsequent inclusion into the neig hbourhood schools. Our position in this study thus, is in line with the view that 'inc lusive education' is a transverse issue which regards all marginalised g roups of learners, and in the Rwandan situation, it cuts across all educ ation programs, ranging from early childhood education to adult educatio n, teacher education and curriculum development, as well as in spheres r elated to culture and social development.status: Publishe
Karl G. Heider (2006). Ethnographic Film (revised edition). Austin: Texas University Press
No full textstatus: Publishe
At the interstices of classification: Notes on the category of disability in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textPeople in all cultures of the world classify other people most readily in easily identifiable categories. Examples of such categories are race, gender, economic, and physical difference. These categories make the world intelligible because they assign roles and functions attached to the individuals that fill the category. Racial, gender, and other categories that reflect difference may change over time as to the meaning and assigned roles and functions, but the very fact of them being a criterion for classification remains rather unchallenged. Yet the very fact of classification may question whether individuals with disabilities belong to the most essential of all categories, the human category. With classification, a statement of exclusion or inclusion in the human category is imminent.status: Publishe
On the threshold of adult life: Dis-course and life course of mental retardation in American culture
No full text"""On the Threshold of Adult Life"" is a study of the transition to adult life of persons with mild mental retardation in American culture. The analysis combines a discourse and life course approach based on (a) ethnographic work with twelve individuals, parents and school or agency personnel, (b) historical research of mental retardation, and (c) life transition. Through interdisciplinary work, the study adds to a dynamic anthropological approach to life transitions by taking into account the impact of history and specialized population on the nature of a recognized life transition. An understanding of the phenomenon of life transition suggests a revision of current policy and practice. The development of transition mediation is proposed and can not be limited to the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process. The use of ethnographic and historical methods and the analysis of discourse and life course issues broadens the intellectual basis for future scholarly work on the life transitions of persons with disabilities."Chapter 1 reviews policy development on transition and outlines an epistemological position of mental retardation as social construction. An anthropological approach to culture and disability studies is in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 analyses dis-course as historical impact of life transitions of a specific population. Ethnographic life histories of four selected persons with mental retardation in Chapter 4 are the basis for an understanding of the phenomenon of life transition as process. Life transition is defined as a significant flow of events that precipitate personal mediation and is marked by physical changes and social realignment. Chapter 5 situates parents, schools, agencies, and individuals with disabilities between discourse and life course. Subsequent chapters are based on a modified life course analysis that include individual (Chapter 6), social (Chapter 7), and cultural (Chapter 8) dimensions. In the conclusion, the threshold of adult life is presented as the outcome of historical development of stigma, the socialization and negotiation with the culture of mental retardation. Theoretically, the dynamic of life transitions is emphasized in terms of historical, socio-economic, and cultural-competence-impact that individuals and systems face in negotiating a life transition.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T12:42:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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De situatie van personen met een handicap in België met betrekking tot hun mensenrechten en fundamentele vrijheden zoals gewaarborgd door het VN-Verdrag inzake de rechten van personen met een handicap
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