The geographies of disability and a re-evaluation of the social relations of research production
Claire Edwards, University of Cork
Co-author(s): Rob Imrie
Abstract
Oliver's (1992) paper about the social relations of research and
disability suggested that research had done little to change in any significant
way the lives of disabled people. His critiques of academic research was
part of a broader awareness of how research subjects often become part
of the objectivist gaze of experts and, in the process, are drawn into
exploitative relationships. Disabled people, in this view, are passive
victims, or 'psychological dopes' that feed into the academic
production line. Reflecting on 15 years or so of research with/of disabled
people, we seek to counter some of the views of Oliver and others and,
in doing so, offer an analysis that stresses the positive roles of the
academe, the importance of experts and expertism, and the roles and responsibilities
that research subjects ought to assume and exercise in the process of
research production.