1,158 research outputs found
Disability, spinal cord injury, and strength and conditioning: sociological considerations
Little knowledge is available for strength and conditioning coaches' (SCCs) to develop strength and conditioning (S&C) programs with athletes with a disability. Knowledge that is available is 'bioscientific' with scant consideration of how dominant understandings of disability are constructed or how disability is experienced.
In response, this paper provides a conceptual overview of disability and reflections from the authors published research into disability sport and spinal cord injury (SCI) to question the tacit knowledge used in S&C and the influence this has on SCC/athlete relationships. Guidelines to develop more reciprocal and empowering practices with athletes with a disability are advocated
(Dis)ability by design: Narratives of bodily perfectionism
Much academic research into disability sport has been accused of reinforcing ableist attitudes, treating disability as a homogenous construct, suffers from theoretical impoverishment, and has failed to listen to the voices of disabled people themselves in providing critical insight (e.g. Brittain, 2004; Moola and Norman, 2012). Excluding a few notable exceptions (Huang and Brittain, 2006; Berger, 2009; Lindemann, 2010; LeClair, 2011; Peers, 2012) there is still a dearth of empirically based research in understanding how disabled athletes construct and negotiate senses of embodied identity. Taking this into consideration, we draw on data generated from a four year ethnographic study into wheelchair sport in England to examine the ways in which disabled athletes engage in self-reflexive âbody projectsâ (Shilling, 1993) in making strong personal statements about their identity amongst contemporary somatic cultures that idealise and ârelentlessly promote the body beautifulâ (Thomas, 2007: 132).
A structural narrative analysis of the âbigâ and âsmallâ stories (Bamberg, 2006) told by the disabled athletes in the field revealed three dominant âbody projectsâ in action: 1) in developing malleable bodies participants either altered the comportment of their bodies conservatively by building muscle and losing body fat in attempting to become âperfectly disabledâ in relation to able-bodied ideologies of body perfectionism, or more radically through desiring amputation of impaired body parts in ways that contest these dominant beliefs 2) in engaging in tattooing and piercing practices that transform the appearance of the skin, participants artfully constructed modified bodies, affording them a sense of control and expression over their identities in a number of ways and 3) cyborg bodies were imagined where participants played with the possibilities of evolving technologies on their senses of corporeality.
Taking an inter-disciplinary approach to interpretation, findings suggest that additional significance is held amongst participants living these bodies than exclusively as forming part of a âbody projectâ alone. Indeed, the identities that disabled athletes embodied and performed should not be thought of as singular, homogeneous, passive, and static but should be better seen as plural, heterogeneous, active, and evolving. We provide reflections that question if identity construction in disability sport is policed by medicalising and ableist discourses with the expectation that disabled athletes should reject their own âflawedâ bodies and align themselves to the carnal norms of non-disabled people (Hughes and Paterson, 1999), or if wheelchair athletes are able to demonstrate agency in relation to these norms and express empowering and proud senses of disabled identity that subvert the ânon-disabled gazeâ (Hughes, 1999) offering a challenge to contemporary tyrannies of bodily perfectionism
(Dis)abled athletes as the âAmbassadors of transhumanismâ
Drawing on data generated from a four year ethnographic study into wheelchair sport in England we examine how (dis)abled athletes come to understand themselves as a âcomplex hybridisationâ between (Wo)Man and machine (Haraway, 1991). A structural narrative analysis of the âbigâ and âsmallâ stories (Bamberg, 2006) told by the (dis)abled athletes in the field revealed three ideal types in action. Techno-survival stories and techno-rehabilitation stories were entrenched in, and sanctioned by the medical discourses of restoration and normalisation that informed the way participants made sense of their bodies and constructed their identities over time. In contrast, using cyborg embodiment stories some participants demonstrated a sense of agency in creating new ways of relating to technology which allowed them to challenge and reject various dualisms (e.g., able/disabled, normal/abnormal), and instead construct âproudâ (dis)abled identities that imagine different kinds of humanity in relation to various technological fields. Some reflections are offered on the ways in which these cyborg embodiment stories transgress established dualisms and offer what Haraway (1991) calls âdangerous possibilitiesâ for the empowerment of (dis)abled athletes. In this process we suggest that in the future (dis)abled athletes have the potential to become âambassadors of transhumanismâ as described by Miah (2003)
Book Review of Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City by Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall
A book review of Unearthing Gotham, which illustrates the over 11,000 years of prehistory and history represented by artifacts and archaeological remains recovered from beneath the streets of New York City
Disabled sporting bodies as sexual beings: Reflections and challenges
In general, disabled peopleâs sexualities have been ignored, controlled, denied and treated (Shakespeare et al, 1996). Disabled bodies have been conceptualised as asexual, unruly, monstrous and unattractive to such an extent that such bodies constitute a sexually challenging idea (Goodley, 2011). According to Shuttleworth and Grove (2008),where sexuality and disability have been focused upon the tendency has been to over-emphasise psychosexual (mal) functioning; explore menâs sexuality rather than womenâs; place a lot of store on medical rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions; and implicitly assume heterosexual encounters. Shildrick (2007: 27) notes, however, that in recent years , disability studies, particularly those working with queer and feminist theory, âhave increasingly problematized the conventional parameters of sexuality, in order to explore non-normative constructions of sexual identities, pleasures and agency that more adequately encompass multifarious forms of embodied difference.â Set against this backdrop, in this chapter we explore the complex dynamics of disability, sexuality, and gender in sport by providing vignettes of individual narratives in wheelchair sport. These are used to illustrate (1) how the experiences of each are framed by heteronormativity, compulsory heterosexuality and able-bodiness, and (2) how the very âqueernessâ of their bodies provides a corporeal resource for subverting disabled sexualities in sport. Finally, some reflections are offered regarding future research in terms an embodied sociology that draws on Disability Studies, Feminist Theory, and Queer Theory
The irony of apartheid: A study in technique and theme in the fiction of Nadine Gordimer
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