Universität Wien

140056 SE VM1 / VM8 - Disabilities and Ableism as human rights concerns (2017W)

A rights-based perspective on development guidelines

7.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Continuous assessment of course work
SGU
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: German, English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 05.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 12.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 19.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 09.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 16.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 23.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 30.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 07.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 14.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 11.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 18.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1
  • Thursday 25.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum SG2 Internationale Entwicklung, Sensengasse 3, Bauteil 1

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Human rights have become mainstreamed instruments in international policy discourses,
accepted and subject to fairly little questioning in public and political debate. Disability
concerns – as a fairly unspecific category that has to be either narrowed down, and
thereby often medicalised, or sufficiently universalised in order to become operational –
were taken up in the human rights canon as part of ‘minority rights’. This course intends
to allow students a perspective of historical and present debates that offer the
groundwork for current development strategies in light of a globalising human rights
agenda.
We will inspect the concepts of (dis)‘ableism’ (discriminatory practices based on
impairment) and the social model of disability, and how they appear in policy planning.
Literature will be divided into two categories: (1) academic articles will provide an
overview of theoretical challenges that lie at the heart of general human rights’
universalism, and specific disability-related human rights implementation; (2) on this
basis, strategic plans of transnational and local institutional bodies (grey literature) will
be analysed by students for how they relate to and attempt to reconcile theoretical
challenges.
The former sources consists of literature on body theory, social constructivism, world
society theory and their effects in policy planning. The latter will consist of normative
documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and Bill of Rights, as
well as United Nations human rights treaties that followed. Regarding disability rights, we
will look specifically at the World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons
(1982-91), Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), and the UN Convention on the Rights
of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, 2006). Their aims are inspected for how they
resonate in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000), the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development (SDGs, 2015), and the European Commission’s new
European Consensus on Development (2016). Our goal is to recognise changes and
similarities in how proposed strategies are framed, which circumstances they respond to,
and to assess what are taken as (interdependent) successful strategies for both state
and civil society actors.

Methods:
Critical reading and preparation of questions in small focus groups (group reading and
mutual presentation); plenary discussions among groups during each session; short
group presentations on respective literature – questions are provided in advance.
Relevant texts will be discussed to allow students an overview of perspectives available
to them – to be used as a human rights prism through which to view policy strategies.

Aims:
Development of sufficient knowledge to understand disability studies critique and
potential difficulties in human rights. Developments of rights discourses can shed light on
their historical, political and cultural contingencies (who/when/why/where) – in politics as
well as by civil stakeholders/interest groups. An international disability rights movement
is taken as a prominent example of where rights efforts can cause conflicts of interest
and/or new means of cooperation.

Assessment and permitted materials

Final paper – 15-20 pages (standard font)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Active participation in discussions on compulsory reading and minimum presence;
excerpt/essay/oral presentation; at least 15 pages’ final written paper

Examination topics

Reading of key texts that are discussed in the course of the semester; individual
research and sources from other fields are very welcome

Reading list

(Selection – full reading list will be provided during first session):
Barnartt, S. and Scotch, R. K. (2001) Disability Protests: Contentious Politics 1970-1999. Washington,
DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Campbell, F. K. (2008) ‘Exploring internalized ableism using critical race theory’, Disability & Society,
23(2), pp. 151–162.
Corker, M. (1998) ‘Disability Discourse in a Postmodern World’, in Shakespeare, T. (ed.) The Disability
Reader: Social Science Perspectives. New York & London: Continuum International Publishing, pp. 221–
233.
Giulianotti, R. and Robertson, R. (2012) ‘Mapping the global football field: a sociological model of
transnational forces within the world game’, The British Journal of Sociology, 63(2), pp. 216–240.
Harpur, Paul (2012) ‘Embracing the New Disability Rights Paradigm: The Importance of the Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, Disability & Society, 27(1), pp. 1–14.
Hughes, B. (2009) ‘Disability Activisms: Social Model Stalwarts and Biological Citizens’. Disability &
Society 24 (6): 677–88.
Hughes, B. and Paterson, K. (1997) ‘The Social Model of Disability and the Disappearing Body: Towards
a sociology of impairment’, Disability & Society, 12(3), pp. 325–340.
Janz, N., and T. Risse, eds. (2007) Menschenrechte: Globale Dimensionen eines universellen Anspruchs.
Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Joas, H. (2008) ‘Value Generalization - Limitations and Possibilities of a Communication about Values’,
Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik - Journal for Business, Economics & Ethics, 9(1), pp.
88–96.
Joas, H. (2004) ‘Morality in an Age of Contingency’, Acta Sociologica, 47(4), pp. 392–399.
Link, J. (2004). ‘From the “Power of the Norm” to “Flexible Normalism”: Considerations after Foucault’.
Translated by Mirko M. Hall. Cultural Critique 57 (1): 14–32.
Maskos, Rebecca (2015) ‘Ableism und das Ideal des autonomen Fähig-Seins in der kapitalistischen
Gesellschaft’. Zeitschrift für Inklusion 0(2).
Meyer, J. W. and Rowan, B. (1977) ‘Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and
Ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), pp. 340–363.
Priestley, M. et al. (2016) ‘The Political Participation of Disabled People in Europe: Rights, Accessibility
and Activism’, Electoral Studies, 42, pp. 1–9.
Priestley, M. (1998) ‘Constructions and Creations: Idealism, Materialism and Disability Theory’,
Disability & Society, 13(1), pp. 75–94.
Shakespeare, T. (1996) ‘Disability, Identity and Difference’, in Barnes, C. and Mercer, G. (eds) Exploring
the Divide. Leeds: The Disability Press, pp. 94–113.
Shakespeare, T. and Watson, N. (2002) ‘The Social Model of Disability: An Outdated Ideology?’,
Research in Social Science and Disability (2), pp. 9–28. doi: 10.1016/S1479-3547(01)80018-X.
UN General Assembly. 2008. CRPD - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. U.N. Doc.
A/RES/61/106. New York: United Nations.
UN General Assembly (1982) World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons. A/RES/37/52.
New York & Geneva: United Nations
UNHCR (1999) Implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons:
Towards a Society for All in the Twenty-first Century. GA Resolution A/RES/54/121. New York: United
Nations.
Waldron, J. (1998) ‘How to Argue for a Universal Claim’, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 30, pp.
305–314.

Association in the course directory

VM1 / VM8

Last modified: We 21.04.2021 13:31