Journal article
'Quality of Life' Talk and the Corporatisation of Intellectual Disability
Disability & Society, Vol.13(3), pp.451-471
1998
Abstract
The notion of 'Quality of Life' (QOL) has recently become a key device in the intellectual disability research community. Despite considerable attention to operational definition and issues of measurement, little work has considered the historical and sociopolitical context of the construct. The view that QOL represents an evolution of Wolfensberger's (1972) Principle of Normalisation appears widespread. This paper argues that this view is naive. An historical study of the rhetoric of government and academia in the United Kingdom suggests that QOL is intimately bound up with broader discourses of managerialism and corporatism in contemporary western societies. Rather than being the ideologically pure and scientifically untroubled notion implicitly claimed by the research community, QOL discourse is shown to be mutually constructed by government and the 'psy-complex'. Whether such a construction can redeem its practical and rhetorical promises, and also serve the interests of people with intellectual disabilities, is questioned.
Details
- Title
- 'Quality of Life' Talk and the Corporatisation of Intellectual Disability
- Authors/Creators
- M. Rapley (Author/Creator)J. Ridgway (Author/Creator)
- Publication Details
- Disability & Society, Vol.13(3), pp.451-471
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Identifiers
- 991005540066807891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Social Sciences and Psychology
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
46 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 1 Clinical & Life Sciences
- 1.136 Autism & Development Disorders
- 1.136.536 Disabilities
- Web Of Science research areas
- Rehabilitation
- Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general