Reframing Disability and Quality of Life

Reframing Disability and Quality of Life
Author: Narelle Warren
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2013-03-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9400730187

This volume brings together two parallel fields of interest. One is the understanding among psychologists and other social scientists of the limits to psychometric measurement, and the challenges in generating information about quality of life and wellbeing that enable comparison across time and place, at both individual and population levels. The second is the interest among anthropologists and others in the lived experience of chronic illness and disability, including the unpredictable fluctuations in perceived health and capability. Chronic conditions and physical impairments are assumed to impact negatively on people’s quality of life, affecting them psychologically, socially and economically. While some of these conditions have declined in prevalence, as a result of prenatal diagnosis, early successful interventions, and changes in medical technology and surgery, many of these conditions are on the increase as a consequence of improved life-saving medication and technology, and greater longevity. ‘Quality of life’ is often used as an indicator for successful and high quality health services, and good access to medical attention and surgery – for hip replacements or laser surgery to improve vision, for instance. But it is also used as an argument against interventions, when such interventions are seen to prolong life for its own sake. Yet we also know that people vary their idea of quality as a result of the context of fluctuations in their own health status, the presence or absence of pain or discomfort, and as a result of variations in social and economic contextual factors. In exploring these questions, this volume contributes to emerging debates related to individual health outcomes, but also to the social and other individual determinants that influence everyday life. Understanding these broader contextual factors will contribute to our knowledge of the kinds of services, support systems, and infrastructure that provide people with good ‘quality of life’ and a sense of wellbeing, regardless of their physical health, capability and functioning. The volume includes scholars from all continents who have been encouraged to think critically, and to engage with the descriptive, methodological, social, policy and clinical implications of their work.

The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology

The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology
Author: Lenore Manderson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317743776

The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology provides a contemporary overview of the key themes in medical anthropology. In this exciting departure from conventional handbooks, compendia and encyclopedias, the three editors have written the core chapters of the volume, and in so doing, invite the reader to reflect on the ethnographic richness and theoretical contributions of research on the clinic and the field, bioscience and medical research, infectious and non-communicable diseases, biomedicine, complementary and alternative modalities, structural violence and vulnerability, gender and ageing, reproduction and sexuality. As a way of illustrating the themes, a rich variety of case studies are included, presented by over 60 authors from around the world, reflecting the diverse cultural contexts in which people experience health, illness, and healing. Each chapter and its case studies are introduced by a photograph, reflecting medical and visual anthropological responses to inequality and vulnerability. An indispensible reference in this fastest growing area of anthropological study, The Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology is a unique and innovative contribution to the field.

High Performance Disability Sport Coaching

High Performance Disability Sport Coaching
Author: Geoffery Z. Kohe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2016-08-25
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1317507169

As the profile of disability sport has risen, so has the emphasis grown beyond participation to include the development of a high performance environment. This book is the first to take an in-depth look at the role of coaches and coaching in facilitating the professionalisation of disability sport, in raising performance standards, and as an important vector for the implementation of significant political, socio-cultural and technological change. Using in-depth case studies of elite disability sport coaches from around the world, the book offers a framework for critical reflection on coaching practice as well as the reader’s own experiences of disability sport. The book also evaluates the vital role of the coach in raising the bar of performance in a variety of elite level disability sports, including athletics, basketball, boccia, equestrian sport, rowing, soccer, skiing, swimming and volleyball. Providing a valuable evidence-based learning resource to support coaches and students in developing their own practice, High Performance Disability Sport Coaching is essential reading for all those interested in disability sport, coaching practice, elite sport development and the Paralympic Games.

Handbook of Disability Sport and Exercise Psychology

Handbook of Disability Sport and Exercise Psychology
Author: Jeffrey J. Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2018
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0190638052

Historically, very few sport and exercise psychologists and professionals from related fields such as disability and rehabilitation have conducted thorough research on individuals with disabilities engaged in sport and exercise. The tide is turning, however, as growing media attention and familiarity with the Paralympics and the Wounded Warrior Project begins capturing the attention of researchers everywhere. By addressing this gap, Jeffrey J. Martin's compelling Handbook of Disability Sport and Exercise Psychology is one of the first comprehensive overviews of this important and emerging field of study. In this volume, Martin, an accomplished professor of sport and exercise psychology, shines a light on a variety of topics ranging from philosophy, athletic identity, participation motivation, quality of life, social and environmental barriers, body image, and intellectual impairments among many other issues. Based on the author's own experience and insight, a majority of these topic discussions in this volume are accompanied by thoughtful directions for future research and exploration. Designed to spark conversation and initiate new avenues of research, the Handbook of Disability Sport and Exercise Psychology will allow for readers to look outside the traditional literature focusing largely on able-bodied individuals and, instead, develop a much greater perspective on sport and exercise psychology today.

Reframing Disability in Manga

Reframing Disability in Manga
Author: Yoshiko Okuyama
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2020-05-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0824882369

Reframing Disability in Manga analyzes popular Japanese manga published from the 1990s to the present that portray the everyday lives of adults and children with disabilities in an ableist society. It focuses on five representative conditions currently classified as shōgai (disabilities) in Japan—deafness, blindness, paraplegia, autism, and gender identity disorder—and explores the complexities and sociocultural issues surrounding each. Author Yoshiko Okuyama begins by looking at preindustrial understandings of difference in Japanese myths and legends before moving on to an overview of contemporary representations of disability in popular culture, uncovering sociohistorical attitudes toward the physically, neurologically, or intellectually marked Other. She critiques how characters with disabilities have been represented in mass media, which has reinforced ableism in society and negatively influenced our understanding of human diversity in the past. Okuyama then presents fifteen case studies, each centered on a manga or manga series, that showcase how careful depictions of such characters as differently abled, rather than disabled or impaired, can influence cultural constructions of shōgai and promote social change. Informed by numerous interviews with manga authors and disability activists, Okuyama reveals positive messages of diversity embedded in manga and argues that greater awareness of disability in Japan in the last two decades is due in part to the popularity of these works, the accessibility of the medium, and the authentic stories they tell. Scholars and students in disability studies will find this book an invaluable resource as well as those with interests in Japanese cultural and media studies in general and manga and queer narrative and anti-normative discourse in Japan in particular.

Ethnographies and Health

Ethnographies and Health
Author: Emma Garnett
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2018-06-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319893963

This edited collection explores the multiple ways in which ethnography and health emerge and take form through the research process. There is now a plethora of disciplinary engagements with ethnography around the topic of health, including anthropology, sociology, geography, science and technology studies, and in health care professions such as nursing and occupational therapy. This dynamic and evolving landscape means ethnography and health are entangled in new and different ways, providing a timely opportunity to explore what these entanglements do and affect in the social production of knowledge. Rather than discussing the strengths (and limitations) of ethnography for engaging with health, the book asks: what does ethnography enable, make visible and possible for knowing and doing health in contemporary research settings and beyond?

Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday

Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday
Author: Gareth M. Thomas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2018-03-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315446421

Many critical analyses of disability address important ‘macro’ concerns, but are often far removed from an interactional and micro-level focus. Written by leading scholars in the field, and containing a range of theoretical and empirical contributions from around the world, this book focuses on the taken-for-granted, mundane human activities at the heart of how social life is reproduced, and how this impacts on the lives of those with a disability, family members, and other allies. It departs from earlier accounts by making sense of how disability is lived, mobilised, and enacted in everyday lives. Although broad in focus and navigating diverse social contexts, chapters are united by a concern with foregrounding micro, mundane moments for making sense of powerful discourses, practices, affects, relations, and world-making for disabled people and their allies. Using different examples – including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, polio, and Parkinson’s disease – contributions move beyond a simplified narrow classification of disability which creates rigid categories of existence and denies bodily variation. Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday should be considered essential reading for disability studies students and academics, as well as professionals involved in health and social care. With contributions located within new and familiar debates around embodiment, stigma, gender, identity, inequality, care, ethics, choice, materiality, youth, and representation, this book will be of interest to academics from different disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, anthropology, humanities, public health, allied health professions, science and technology studies, social work, and social policy.

Disability and the Media

Disability and the Media
Author: Katie Ellis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2017-09-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137501715

This concise, integrated introduction to the complex relationship between disability and the media offers a roadmap to the key areas of participation, access and representation. Bringing together international theoretical work and research on disability, with analysis and examples across a diverse range of media forms – from radio, to news, popular television and new digital technologies – this unique text explores the potential for establishing a more diverse, rich and just media. Providing an approachable but critical introduction to the field, Katie Ellis and Gerard Goggin show how disability – like the closely connected areas of race and gender – is a pervasive issue in how the media represent society. Engaging and accessible, this is an invaluable resource for students of Media and Communication Studies, Cultural Studies and Disability Studies, as well as teachers, researchers, media professionals, policy makers, and anyone interested in the intersections of disability and media.

Integrating the Participants’ Perspective in the Study of Language and Communication Disorders

Integrating the Participants’ Perspective in the Study of Language and Communication Disorders
Author: Charlotte Marie Bisgaard Klemmensen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2018-04-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3319786342

This book presents a new analytical approach that will advance the establishment of a new discourse within the study of language and communication disorders. Instances of recurring aphasia and acquired brain injury are discussed in an empirical observation study through a theoretical lens that combines Integrational Linguistics, ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis and practice theory. In doing so, this interdisciplinary analysis adds a person-centered perspective to existing ethnographic approaches. It addresses a significant gap in our understanding of the social/communicative/interactional consequences of brain injury for everyday life by focusing on the practical problems that individuals with communication difficulties and acquired brain damage - and their care-takers, family and friends - have to solve in everyday life, and how they solve them. This innovative work will appeal to health and social care practitioners and care-givers, in addition to scholars of health communication, cognitive, psycho- and sociolinguistics.