A legacy of silence: the intersections of medical sociology and disability studies

Abstract

Disability remains on the margins of the social sciences. Even where disability is foregrounded as a category of analysis, accounts regularly emerge in silos, with little interdisciplinary dialogue acknowledging the potential intersections and points of convergence. This discord is particularly acute within medical sociology and disability studies, yet there is mostly a legacy of silence about the relationship between the two disciplines. Drawing upon data from a qualitative study with parents of disabled children in the UK, I show the value of meshing ideas and tropes from medical sociology and disability studies to make sense of parents’ lived experiences. They described the challenges of living with 'impairment' and a need to readjust expectations. At the same time, parents were keen to not align with a deficit framing of their lives. They talked in affirmative terms about their children as sources of joy and vitality, perceived themselves as ‘normal’, and described convivial, even unremarkable, interactions in public spaces. Yet, parents encountered difficulties when navigating institutional settings and bureaucratic arrangements, or what was commonly referred to as ‘the system’. Their troubles were not located in their children’s bodies, but in—as per a disability studies sensibility—cultural and structural systems preventing their capacity to live well. I argue that both disability studies and medical sociology offer something to the analysis, thereby recognising the gains of not simply buying into the tradition of one worldview. I conclude by imploring for more concrete conversations between both disciplines.

What makes a ‘good doctor’? A critical discourse analysis of perspectives from medical students with lived experience as patients

“…2019; Meeks, Herzer, and Jain 2018). The discourse of the ‘doctor with lived experience’ served as a counterpoint to the prevailing ableist discourse in medical practice, and provides an important space of possibility for reframing dual physician-patient experiences as a form of expertise rather than a source of stigma (Thomas 2022). Zazove et al .…”

Affect, dis/ability and the pandemic

“…Medical sociology has tended to talk around rather than about disability (preferring analyses in terms of social deviance) and critical disability studies situating understandings in terms of social oppression (very much influenced by social and materialist models of disability). While more contemporary scholarship has brought together the two perspectives (e.g, Mauldin & Lewis, 2021;Thomas, 2021) we note that there are often tensions between these two fields of scholarship. In particular, critical disability studies occupy a liminal space between academia/ activist and theory/praxis.…”

Like clockwork? (Re)imagining rhythms and routines when living with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

“…For instance, Charmaz ( 1991 ) details a focus on everyday routines, slowing down, time stretched out and supported within broader relationships and interdependencies-flexibilities and recreations of time very much related to crip time ( Kafer, 2013 ). Of course, many of the conceptualisations within medical sociology have been challenged within disability studies for their deficit or personal tragedy framing, with less focus on social oppression and active attempts in ensuring equality and access ( see Thomas, 2021 for a detailed discussion of this ). The social relational model developed by Carol Thomas has been a necessary gap here that accounts such tensions between social worlds and embodied personal lives ( Thomas, 2007 ).…”