Wheelchair users and housing in Dundee: the social construction and spatiality of disability

People with disabilities;People with disabilities--Social conditions;People with disabilities--Scotland

Levy, Susan L. ; Joe, Doherty ; Joe, Doherty

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Earth & Environmental Sciences and Geography & Sustainable Development (Schools of)

关键词: People with disabilities;    People with disabilities--Social conditions;    People with disabilities--Scotland;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/2722/SusanLLevyPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

The thesis examines the experiences and perceptions of wheelchair users livingin different types and tenures of housing in the City of Dundee. Theinterrelationships between space, society and the body are examined in theempirical context of housing, ableism and the disabled body. The voices ofwheelchair users, gleaned from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, are usedthroughout the thesis to illustrate how the geographies of people with disabilitiesare delineated and constrained by socio-cultural representations of disability.Conceptually the study has been guided by the social model of disability, butinsights from postmodernism and feminist literature are drawn on to add a furtherdimension to the interpretation of the data and the study's methodology. Thesocial construction of difference, social exclusion and definitions of the normaland aberrant body emerge as key concepts linking analysis of the data at thespatial scales of the neighbourhood, home and the body. Spatial metaphors of'out of place', 'marginalised' or 'socio-spatially excluded' capture the essence ofthe impressions people with disabilities hold of their interactions with their livingspaces and service providers. The study suggests that greater reciprocal dialogueis required between service users and service providers to broaden the knowledgebase from which disability related housing decisions are made.