Alternative Futures: Disability and Community

“另类未来”将调查残疾人表达、表演、体验和实践“社区”的方式。它将质疑残疾和残疾社区是如何由主流文化、自身和研究实践来构建和定位的。这项研究将对更根深蒂固的残疾方法提出质疑(正如莎士比亚在2006年发表的评论)。该项目将借鉴残疾人的生活经验，挑战持久的残疾模式(医疗、临床、应用)。该项目将是创新的，通过对残疾进行全方位的调查。研究团队认识到在如此广泛的社区工作的风险，但在该领域著名学者汤姆·莎士比亚(UEA)和伦纳德·戴维斯(Lennard Davis)的鼓励下，他们对这一决定感到大胆。他们表示，有必要围绕残疾社区发起新的思考。莎士比亚和戴维斯已经同意在最初的开发阶段成为一个国际顾问小组的成员。一个强有力的调查线索将是寻求围绕残疾的更广泛的文化视角。人类学和残障研究之间需要“相互参与”(Kasnitz，2001)，并且需要更多跨文化背景的知识(Warren&Manderson，2013)。我们打算调查残疾人在不同社会中的地位，并提出替代方案。我们的目的是改变残疾人社区成员以及广大公众的看法。人们特别感兴趣的将是未来社区成员的设想方式。这将包括对新技术和数字媒体的调查。残疾和技术之间的关系存在问题的历史(Swain等人，2013；Branson&Miller，2002)，聋人中正在进行的关于人工耳蜗术的辩论表明，技术并不是普遍受欢迎的，我们需要更多地了解对社区成员的影响。新技术和基因筛查的应用有可能改变和分化社区，提供新的、看似干净的优生学版本(Garland-Thomson，2012)。为了实现这一更广泛的项目，开发阶段将以确定对研究团队和社区成员重要的主题为基础。第一个活动将是一个讲习班，有来自残疾社区的人、支助团体的代表、残疾艺术家和表演者以及从一系列领域挑选出来的学者参加。今后调查的主题将在第一次讲习班以及随后的阶段形成，届时小组将通过面谈/焦点小组会议进一步探讨问题。这将导致第二次讲习班，在此期间将进一步细化重点，出现关键的研究问题，并建立一个方法框架。然后，咨询小组将被邀请对正在出现的项目进行审议和评论。调查的性质以及学术团队的不同背景--严重残疾研究、媒体研究和人类学--将导致与历史学和心理学等其他学科相关的跨学科调查。团队的其他成员带来了不同的艺术经验，他们也给残疾人社区带来了密切的联系。这项研究将有助于更广泛的AHRC互联社区方案，特别是在谢菲尔德研讨会上制定的关于隔绝、分裂和排斥的主题。这项研究将寻求突出残疾人在社区中的安置方式。其目的是，这将为从业者、支持团体和政策制定者提供新的见解。

'Alternative Futures' will investigate the ways in which disabled people express, perform, experience and practice 'community'. It will question the ways in which disability and disabled communities are constructed and positioned by mainstream culture, by themselves and by research practice. The research will contest more entrenched approaches to disability (as critiqued in Shakespeare 2006). The project will challenge persistent models of disability (medical, clinical, applied), drawing on the lived experience of disabled people. The project will be innovative through carrying out inquiry across the full spectrum of disability.The research team recognise the risk in working across such broad communities, but feel emboldened in that decision through the encouragement of prominent academics in the field: Tom Shakespeare, (UEA) and Lennard Davis (University of Illinois), who have expressed the view that there is a need to initiate new thinking around Disability community. Shakespeare and Davis have agreed to be on an international advisory group during the initial development phase. A strong inquiry strand will be in seeking wider cultural perspectives around disability. There is a need for 'mutual engagement' between Anthropology and Disability Studies (Kasnitz, 2001), and for more knowledge across cultural settings (Warren & Manderson, 2013). We intend to investigate the ways in which disabled people are positioned across different societies, and to suggest alternative possibilities. Our purpose is to shift perceptions among members of disabled communities as well as the wider public. A particular interest will be in the ways in which future membership of communities is envisaged. This will include inquiry into new technologies and digital media. There is a history of problematic relations between disability and technology (Swain et al, 2013; Branson & Miller, 2002), and the ongoing debate around cochlear implants among the Deaf shows that technologies are not universally welcomed, and again, we need to know more about implications for community membership. The application of new technologies and genetic screening has the potential to change and divide communities, providing new and seemingly clean versions of eugenics (Garland-Thomson, 2012). In order to work towards this wider project, the development stage will be based around identifying the themes of importance to the research team and to community members. The first event will be a workshop involving people from disability communities, representatives from support groups, disabled artists and performers, and academics selected from a range of fields. The themes for future inquiry will be shaped during this first workshop, and also during the subsequent phase, when the team will explore issues further through interviews / focus group meetings. This will lead to a second workshop, during which there will be further refinement of focus, the emergence of key research questions, and the construction of a methodological framework. The advisory group will then be invited to consider and comment on the emerging project. The nature of the inquiry, and the diverse backgrounds of the academic team team - Critical Disability Studies, Media Studies and Anthropology - will result in inter-disciplinary inquiry that will be of relevance to other disciplines, such as History and Psychology. Other members of the team bring diverse experience across the arts, and they also bring close connections to disability communities. The research will contribute to the wider AHRC Connected Communities Programme, and specifically, to the themes developed at the workshop in Sheffield, around Disconnection, Division and Exclusion. The research will seek to highlight the ways in which disabled people situate themselves in communities. The intention is that this will provide new insights for practitioners, support groups and policy-makers.