"To Pee or not to Pee"? Ordinary Talk about Extraordinary Exclusions in a University Environment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs1526Keywords:
disability studies, narrativeAbstract
Abstract. This paper demonstrates the sorts of questions that arise for sociologically informed disability studies scholarship in the midst of the interactional scenes of access struggles in an educational workplace environment. From my experiences in the third largest building of a large Canadian university, I have recollected ordinary talk that justifies the exclusion of disabled people and have pieced together narratives representing things-possible-to-say-today about accessibility struggles. By using an interpretive sociological approach, this paper explores how meanings of disability are generated through talk that justifies the exclusive shape and inaccessible structures of university life. I demonstrate that access is not a synonym for justice but is a beginning place for critical questioning where social relations between body and space can be thought anew. This paper adds to sociologically informed disability studies scholarship by analyzing how the ordinary everyday narration of disability acts as a social power reproducing the status-quo even as the material environment changes. Résumé. Ce texte démontre le genre de questions qui se présentent aux études sur la condition des personnes handicapées informées par la sociologieen interrogent les interactions qui émergent autour des luttes pour «l’accès» dans un milieu de travail scolaire/ académique. Au cours de mes expériences dans un des plus grands édifices dans une des plus grandes universités au Canada, j’ai amassé des paroles quotidiennes qui justifient l’exclusion des personnes handicapées. J’ai rassemblé des narratifs représentants ce-qui-est possible-de-dire aujourd’hui sur la lutte pour l’accessibilité. En utilisant une approche sociologique interprétativiste, ce texte illustre la façon dont les significations de l’incapacité sont générés par un discours qui rends légitime la construction exclusive ainsi que les structures inaccessible de la vie universitaire. Dans ce texte, je démontre que l’accès n’est pas synonyme de justice mais, par contre, est un point de départ pour la réflexion critique où les relations sociaux entre corps et espace peut être considéré à nouveau. Ce texte contribue aux études sur la condition des personnes handicapées informées par la sociologie en analysant la façon dont la narration ordinaire et quotidienne de l’incapacité peut continuer à, en même temps que l’environnement physique change, agir comme pouvoir social qui reproduit le statuquo.Downloads
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