Can a disability studies‐medical sociology rapprochement help re‐value the work disabled people do within their rehabilitation?

Abstract

This paper draws attention to the health-related work that disabled people do when engaging with rehabilitation services. Medical sociology has a rich history of looking at the 'illness work' that patients do, while disability studies scholars have explored the cultural value placed upon paid work and the effects on social status of being unable to work. Yet, a longstanding froideur between these two disciplines, which have fundamentally opposed ontologies of illness and disability, means that neither discipline has attended closely to the rehabilitation-related work that disabled people do. The concept of 'adjusting' to illness highlights seemingly irreconcilable disciplinary differences. Yet this article argues that the notion of 'adjustment work' can elucidate the socio-political character of the work disabled people do in their rehabilitation, which could create a more substantial and sustainable dialogue on this subject between disability studies and medical sociology. To make this case, we discuss interview data from the Rights-based Rehabilitation project, which sought to explore disabled people's lived experiences of rehabilitation.

Introduction to special issue: New dialogues between medical sociology and disability studies

“…In the final article in this theme, Cooper et al. (2023) sketch out the ‘adjustment work’ that people do within rehabilitation practices. The idea of rehabilitation as adjustment work, they argue, is largely absent in medical sociology, disability studies and rehabilitation science.…”

“…If disabled people’s adjustment work is considered as socio‐political and positioned more fully in its socio‐material context, they contend, adjustment can subsequently be understood as a site of tension between medical sociology and disability studies. This is because ‘it exposes seemingly irreconcilable ontological differences’ and offers, instead, a ‘potent site to explore a possible rapprochement’ (2023, p. 1302). Cooper and colleagues report upon how people talked about the time, energy and expectation that they had to invest into rehabilitation to maintain their quality of life.…”

The double bind of social legitimacy: On disability, the sick role, and invisible work

“…Specifically, I examine the relationship between disability, social legitimacy and work that is respective paid/unpaid, recognised/unrecognised and visible/invisible. This relationship speaks to the persistent ontological discrepancy between medical sociology and disability studies (Cooper et al., 2023; Porter et al., 2022; Remnant et al., 2022), though also to the ‘intersection, boundaries, and collaborative opportunities’ (McLaughlin et al., 2023) between the disciplines—serving as an exemplar of how an interdisciplinary approach can help explain the way in which the discourse of rights and inclusion may legitimise ableist expectations.…”