Powers of Classification: Politics and Biology in Understandings of Intellectual Disability
Main Article Content
Keywords
Intellectual disability, classification, bio-politics
Abstract
Intellectual disability is commonly understood as a biological state of functioning that determines the cognitive capabilities of the individuals labeled so. By analyzing how intellectual disability is constructed through classification practices this article challenges this view, arguing that intellectual disability primarily is a political, normative and social diagnosis.
References
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Hughes, B., & Paterson, K. (1997). The social model of disability and the disappearing body: Towards a sociology of impairment. Disability & Society, 12(3), 325-340.
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Shakespeare, T. (2006). Disability rights and wrongs. London: Roudledge.
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Simpson, M. K. (2012). Othering intellectual disability: Two models of classification from the 19th century. Theory & Psychology, 22(5), 541-555.
Smith, S. R. (2005). Equality, identity and the Disability Rights Movement: From policy to practice and from Kant to Nietzsche in more than one uneasy move. Critical Social Policy, 25(4), 554-576.
Stiker, H-J. (1999). A history of disability. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Tremain, S. (Ed.) (2005). Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Tucker, I. (2010). The pontentiality of bodies. Theory & Psychology, 20(4), 511-527.
UPIAS. (1976). Fundamental principles of disability. London: UPIAS.
Urla, J. & Terry, J. (1995). Introduction: Mapping embodied deviance. In J. Urla & J. Terry (Eds.), Deviant Bodies. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). DSM-V Intellectual disability fact sheet.
Arias, B., Verdugo, M. A., Navas, P. Gómez, L. E. (2013). Factor structure of the construct of adaptive behavior in children with and without intellectual disability. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, Vol. 13, 155-166.
Barnes, C. (2000). A working social model? Disability, work and disability politics in the 21st century. Critical Social Policy, 20(4), 441-457.
Bennet, P. (2006). Abnormal and Clinical Psychology: An Introductory Textbook (2nd edition). New York: Open University Press.
Borthwick, C. (1996). Racism, IQ and Down’s Syndrome. Disability & Society, 11(3), 403-410.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”. London: Routledge.
Carr, A., & O’Reilly, G. (2007). Diagnosis, classification and epidemiology. In A. Carr, G. O’Reilly, P. Noonan Walsh, J. McEvoy (Eds.), The Handbook of Intellectual Disability and Clinical Psychology Practice. London: Routledge.
Caswell, D., Martson, G., Elm Larsen, J. (2010). Unemployed citizen or ‘at risk’ client? Classification systems and employment services in Denmark and Australia. Critical Social Policy, 30(3), 384-404.
Changeux, J-P. (2004). The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Changeux, J-P., & Edelman, G. M. (Eds.). (2001). The brain. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Chappel, A. (1998). Still out in the cold: People with learning difficulties and the social model of disability. In T. Shakespeare (Ed.), The Disability Reader. London: Cassell.
Chappel, A-L., Goodley, D., Lawthom, R. (2001). Making connections: The relevance of the social model of disability for people with learning difficulties. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, vol. 24, 45-50.
Chen, C-H., Shu, B-C. (2012). The process of perceiving stigmatization: Perspectives from Taiwanese young people with intellectual disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, Vol 25, 240-251.
Flynn, J. R., & Widaman K. F. (2008). The Flynn Effect and the shadow of the past: Mental retardation and the indefensible and indispensible role of IQ. International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, vol. 35, 121-149.
Foucault, M. (1998). The history of sexuality: Vol. 1. the will to knowledge. Hammondsworth: Penguin. (Original work published in 1976).
Foucault, M. (2002). Madness and civilization: A history of insanity in the Age of Reason. London: Routledge. (Original work published in 1967).
Harris J. C. (2006). Intellectual disability: Understanding its development, causes, classification, evaluation and treatment. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hughes, B., & Paterson, K. (1997). The social model of disability and the disappearing body: Towards a sociology of impairment. Disability & Society, 12(3), 325-340.
Hvinden, B. (2009). Redistributive and regulatory disability provisions: Incompatibility or synergy?. In L, Waddington & G. Quinn G (Eds.), European Yearbook of Disability Law. Volume 1. Antwerp and Oxford: Intersentia.
Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2010) Abnormal Child Psychology (4th edition). Stamford: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
McKenzie, J. A. (2013). Models of intellectual disability: towards a perspective of (poss)ability. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(4), 370-379.
McClimens, A. (2007). Language, labels and diagnosis: An idiot’s guide to learning disability. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 11(3), 257-266.
McClimens, A. (2010). These self-evident truths: Power and control in intellectual disability research. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 35(2), 64-65.
Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. London: Macmillan Press.
Rapley, M. (2004). The social construction of intellectual disability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roets, G. (2009). Unraveling Mr President’s nomad lands: Travelling to interdisciplinary frontiers of knowledge in disability studies. Disability & Society, 24(6), 689-701.
Roets, G., Reinaart, R., Van Hove, G. (2007). Living between borderlands: discovering an sense of nomadic subjectivity throughout Rosa’s life story. Journal of Gender Studies, 17(2), 99-115.
Shakespeare, T. (2006). Disability rights and wrongs. London: Roudledge.
Shakespeare, T., & Watson, N. (2001). The social model of disability: An outdated ideology?. In N. Barnartt & B. M. Altman (Eds.), Exploring Theories and Expanding Methodologies: Where we are and where we need to go. Research in Social Science and Disability, vol. 2, 9-28.
Simpson, M. K. (2012). Othering intellectual disability: Two models of classification from the 19th century. Theory & Psychology, 22(5), 541-555.
Smith, S. R. (2005). Equality, identity and the Disability Rights Movement: From policy to practice and from Kant to Nietzsche in more than one uneasy move. Critical Social Policy, 25(4), 554-576.
Stiker, H-J. (1999). A history of disability. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Tremain, S. (Ed.) (2005). Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Tucker, I. (2010). The pontentiality of bodies. Theory & Psychology, 20(4), 511-527.
UPIAS. (1976). Fundamental principles of disability. London: UPIAS.
Urla, J. & Terry, J. (1995). Introduction: Mapping embodied deviance. In J. Urla & J. Terry (Eds.), Deviant Bodies. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
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Published
Feb 11, 2015
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Research Articles and Essays
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Author Biography
Niklas Altermark, Department of Political Science, Lund University
Niklas Altermark is a PhD -Candidate at the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden. His research deals with the politics involved in targeting and constructing intellectual disability.