Disability A Life Course Approach

by Priestley, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780745625126
• ISBN10: 0745625126
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-29
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

Disability: a Life Course Approach provides students and teachers with easy access to many of the most important current disability issues and debates. It provides a clearly focused account, and bridges some important gaps in the existing disability literature by including issues relevant to disabled people of all ages. If offers a unique approach to understanding disabling societies in a systematic way, using a novel life course approach. This book examines how contemporary societies organise and control generational boundaries and progression through the life course for disabled people. There are specific chapters on birthrights and eugenics, childhood, youth transitions, interdependence and adulthood, old age and death and dying. The emphasis is on contemporary policy and politics (located within a broader sociological and cultural context) including the claims and struggles of the disabled people's movement. The discussion is framed within a social model approach and draws extensively on contemporary international debates about the citizenship and human rights of disabled people. The book functions both as a resource guide and as a tool for learning. The various chapters include reviews of existing literature and theoretical debates, alongside specific examples of disabling policies and practices in different countries. There are also case studies illustrating key issues, together with relevant discussion and teaching points, and suggestions for further research and reading. The book addresses an international readership and will be of particular interest to students and teachers of disability studies, sociology, human development, social policy; to professionals and students within rehabilitation and social work; and to disabled people and lay readers with an interest in contemporary disability issues and debates.

Author Biography

Mark Priestley, Senior ESRC Research Fellow at Leeds University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction	1	(3)
A life course approach	4	(2)
Outline of the following chapters	6	(5)
Concepts	11	(24)
Disability	11	(8)
Generation	19	(6)
The life course	25	(7)
Summary	32	(3)
Birthrights	35	(26)
Birth decisions and the value of lives	35	(6)
Eugenics, old and new	41	(9)
New choices or old issues?	50	(9)
Summary	59	(2)
Disability and Childhood	61	(27)
Thinking about childhood	61	(7)
Culture and structure	68	(8)
Current debates	76	(9)
Summary	85	(3)
Disability and Youth	88	(28)
Thinking about youth	88	(9)
Sex and sexuality	97	(9)
Preparation for what?	106	(7)
Summary	113	(3)
Disability and Adulthood	116	(27)
Thinking about adulthood	116	(8)
Parenting	124	(8)
Work and employment	132	(8)
Summary	140	(3)
Disability and Old Age	143	(23)
Culture and structure	143	(6)
The body and identity	149	(7)
The politics of disability and old age	156	(7)
Summary	163	(3)
Death and Dying	166	(23)
Thinking about death and dying	166	(9)
Life, death and disability	175	(12)
Summary	187	(2)
Conclusion	189	(10)
References	199	(36)
Index	235