The Trouble with Normativity: Descriptions and Prescriptions in Disability Studies
Le Programme Handicap & Sociétés et l’Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Paris ont le plaisir de vous convier à la conférence de Simo Vehmas, chercheur-résident 2024-2025 de l’IEA de Paris (Université de Stockholm, Chaire Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Foundation – IEA de Paris)
The Trouble with Normativity: Descriptions and Prescriptions in Disability Studies
Jeudi 24 octobre de 16h à 18h
A l’EHESS, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris
Et à distance sur Zoom
Conférence en anglais avec transcription en temps réel (vélotypie) et interprétation en LSF / ANGLAIS
Participation libre sur inscription sur ce lien
La salle est accessible aux personnes à mobilité réduite.
La conférence sera discutée par Myriam Winance (INSERM)
Conference summary
A recognition of disability as primarily a political and an ethical issue has been an important starting point for disability studies that seeks to conceptualize disability as a social phenomenon that is determined by various social, political, cultural, and economic factors rather than by people’s health conditions. One of the main theoretical and political aims of disability studies has been to identify and critique discrimination associated with the ill-treatment of disabled people and their subordination. This ill-treatment and prejudice are usually called ableism, and ableism is viewed as a moral and political wrong, comparable to, for example, racism and sexism.
In other words, disability studies has from its inception conceptualized disability in normative terms, as a phenomenon characterized by various injustices that exclude disabled people from equal opportunities to pursue well-being and a good life. In order to do justice to the empirical reality of disability experience, the related ethical and political issues would need to be addressed. Without normative arguments and judgments about disabled people’s well-being and rights, only partial picture will emerge.
In this lecture, I will analyse some normative issues in relation disability; how norms related to, for example, language, age or class both reflect and guide disability policy and theory.
Simo Vehmas is professor of special education at Stockholm University and 2024-2025 Research Fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (IEA de Paris), as part of the Chair launched in partnership with the Swedish Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Foundation.
His research has focused on theoretical and ethical issues related to disability.
