Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane: Precarious Positions - Softcover

Rebecca Mallett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908258209 ISBN 13: 9781908258205

Publisher: University of Chester Press, 2016

Synopsis

Emerging from the internationally recognised Theorising Normalcy and the Mundane conference series, the chapters in this book offer wide-ranging critiques of that most pervasive of ideas, 'normal'. In particular, they explore the precarious positions we are presented with and, more often than not, forced into by 'normal', and its operating system, 'normalcy' (Davis, 2010). They are written by activists, students, practitioners and academics and offer related but diverse approaches. Importantly, however, the chapters also ask, what if increasingly precarious encounters with, and positions of, marginality and non-normativity offers us a chance (perhaps the chance) to critically explore the possibilities of 'imagining otherwise'? The book questions the privileged position of 'non-normativity'; in youth and unpacks the expectation of the 'normal' student in both higher and primary education. It uses the position of transable people to push the boundaries of 'disability', interrogates the psycho-emotional disablism of box-ticking bureaucracy and spotlights the 'urge to know' impairment. It draws on cross-movement and cross-disciplinary work around disability to explore topics as diverse as drug use, The Bible and relational autonomy. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, it explores the benefits of (re)instating 'normal'. By paying attention to the opportunities presented amongst the fissures of critique and defiance, this book offers new applications and perspectives for thinking through the most ordinary of ideas,'normal'.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca Mallett is a Principal Lecturer at the Sheffield Institute of Education (Sheffield Hallam University, UK). Her main areas of research include 'disability' in popular culture, the constitution and regulation of interpretative strategies within cultural disability studies and, more recently, the commodification of impairment. She is on the editorial board of Disability and Society, is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and co-coordinates the Disability Research Forum (www.disabilityresearchforum.wordpress.com). Cassandra A. Ogden is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for Sociology at the University of Chester. Her PhD thesis explored the experiences of children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which fuelled her interest in exploring the social disgust of particular bodies and the stigma people face due to perceived differences of the body. Much of Cassandra's current work utilises a critical disability studies perspective but she has also published and co-published on disability hate crime, childhood illness experiences, the social and legal responses to smoking in public and its impact upon the incarcerated, quality of life research, the narrative inquiry technique and the use of food banks in Cheshire. Jenny Slater is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Disability Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. Her doctoral studies involved spending time with two youth groups in the north of England as well as with young disabled women running Iceland's first and only user-led independent living centre. Her research explores youth and disability as social, cultural and political constructs. She is particularly interested in thinking about 'youth' and 'disability' alongside gender, sexuality and the body. In her latest research she is working with disabled, queer and trans people s organisations to think about 'access', 'identity' and toilets (https://aroundthetoilet.Wordpress.com).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chester Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908258209
• ISBN 13: 9781908258205
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 316
• Editor: Rebecca Mallett, Cassandra A. Ogden, Jenny Slater