Autonomy and the socialisation of architects

Abstract The socio-cultural production of architects' identities, and their professional personas, is a lively source of continuing debate. At one extreme, there is the claim to autonomy that highlights the distinctiveness of architecture and its cultural and disciplinary specificity. This view is challenged by those who emphasise architects' dependence, for acting and actions, on their embeddedness into collective, social, settings and relationships. In the paper, we consider what it may mean to be ‘autonomous of’ and ‘dependent on’ in relation to the actions of architects. There is limited specification in architectural writings about what autonomy and dependence are, and we suggest that there is a need not to discount such terms, but to reformulate them by recognising that the socially constructed self is an integral part of individual action. In this respect, we seek to amplify, and evaluate, the concept of relational autonomy that distances the notion of autonomy from individualistic, under-socialised, accounts of architects and their practices. Referring to three empirical examples of practice, we amplify this understanding by, first, outlining what a relational autonomous approach to architecture might entail, and, secondly, assessing how far it may enable a conception of the practices of architects in ways whereby, following Tony Fry's observations, they are conceived as much broader than ‘the specificity of any particular activity’ that expresses their existence

Disability and Bodies as Bearers of Value

This paper considers the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu's conceptions of the body to the development of disability theory. We begin by discussing the limitations of reductive conceptions of disability. In so doing, we consider how far Bourdieu's (1990) concept of habitus offers a way of bringing an analysis of the body to bear upon an understanding of the social inequalities which are core to the lives of disabled people. Through focus groups with disabled people, the paper explores aspects of disabled people's corporeal identities, feelings, and (embodied) encounters in a range of social settings. The research shows that disabled people's lives are connected to different 'valuations' attributed to corporeal forms, and to systems of signification and representation which underpin them. We conclude by reaffirming the need to consider Bourdieu's ideas in helping in the development of disability theory

The Geographies of Disability: Reflections on the Development of a Sub-Discipline

Geographers’ interest in the subject of disability has traditionally been confined to particular parts of the discipline, and usually been of marginal interest to most academics. This has mirrored a broader antipathy to the study of disability in the social sciences although, in recent years, geographical scholarship about space, place, and disability has proliferated. In this review paper, we outline and assess the significance of this trend, and we comment on the importance of theoretical and methodological developments in the sub-discipline. In doing so, we anticipate the ways in which studies of geography and disability are likely to evolve

Living with myotonic dystrophy; what can be learned from couples? a qualitative study

Contains fulltext : 96062.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (MD1) is one of the most prevalent neuromuscular diseases, yet very little is known about how MD1 affects the lives of couples and how they themselves manage individually and together. To better match health care to their problems, concerns and needs, it is important to understand their perspective of living with this hereditary, systemic disease. METHODS: A qualitative study was carried out with a purposive sample of five middle-aged couples, including three men and two women with MD1 and their partners. Fifteen in-depth interviews with persons with MD1, with their partners and with both of them as a couple took place in the homes of the couples in two cities and three villages in the Netherlands in 2009. Results : People with MD1 associate this progressive, neuromuscular condition with decreasing abilities, describing physical, cognitive and psychosocial barriers to everyday activities and social participation. Partners highlighted the increasing care giving burden, giving directions and using reminders to compensate for the lack of initiative and avoidant behaviour due to MD1. Couples portrayed the dilemmas and frustrations of renegotiating roles and responsibilities; stressing the importance of achieving a balance between individual and shared activities. All participants experienced a lack of understanding from relatives, friends, and society, including health care, leading to withdrawal and isolation. Health care was perceived as fragmentary, with specialists focusing on specific aspects of the disease rather than seeking to understand the implications of the systemic disorder on daily life. CONCLUSIONS: Learning from these couples has resulted in recommendations that challenge the tendency to treat MD1 as a condition with primarily physical impairments. It is vital to listen to couples, to elicit the impact of MD1, as a multisystem disorder that influences every aspect of their life together. Couple management, supporting the self-management skills of both partners is proposed as a way of reducing the mismatch between health services and health needs

The interrelationships between building regulations and architects’ practices

It is commonly assumed that building regulation and control is a technical activity and part of a bureaucratic machine external to the design process. For many architects building regulations are no more than a set of rules to be adhered to, and are usually seen as ephemeral, even incidental, to the creative process of design. However, the main argument of this paper suggests that the building regulations are entwined with, and are constitutive of, architects’ practices. Far from being an insignificant part of the design process, as some commentators suggest, I develop the argument that the building regulations influence aspects of creative practice and process in architecture and, as such, ought to be given greater attention by scholars of urban design

Space, Place and Policy Regimes: the changing contours of disability and citizenship

The chapter outlines the case for the focus on the inherently geographical nature of policy regimes in which, as I shall argue, the fortunes of disabled people have to be understood as indissoluble from the intersections between space, place, and policy. Such intersections, in the context of a post-welfare world, are shaped, in part, by the human worthiness of disabled people being, increasingly, discredited in a context whereby welfare policy reform is placing onus on self active and self starting individuals as the basis of a good society. I develop this discussion in the second part of the chapter where I focus on the diminution of disabled people’s liberties with reference to placed-based restructuring in three different policy domains, housing, transport, and public space. In each instance, public policy is intersecting with place to recreate spaces of exclusion or environs that deny opportunity for self hood. I conclude the chapter by outlining the need to (re) politicize the body as part of the development of what citizenship is or ought to be, in ways whereby impairment becomes regarded as the normalcy of everyday life. The assertion, of the normalcy of impairment, does, however, challenge the socio-cultural constructions of disability in society, including the crafting of disabling spatialities that render, potentially,impairment as an object of disablement. I suggest that these relations (of disablement) may be challenged by the development of a body politics that develops the discourse that everyone, irrespective of corporal form and performance, has the rights to inhabit, or to be emplaced, in ways whereby spaces are facilitative of a person’s autonomy or the intrinsic value of the self