Invisibility, Visibility, Vilification, and Near Silence

The Framing of Disability in the Early Years of the American Sociological Society

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20053036
AutoresThomas J Gerschick, J Dalton Stevens
Año2016
Páginas1-27
Fecha de publicación2016-12-22
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaSociology Looking at Disability (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialEmerald Group Publishing Limited (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1108/s1479-354720160000009003
OpenAlexW2563045998
ISBN9781786354785
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas29

Purpose Disability as a consequential social characteristic has not drawn sociologists’ contemporary attention in the way that race, class, gender, and sexuality have. In order to understand why, it is instructive to analyze how disability has been framed since the inception of the American Sociological Society, now known as the American Sociological Association. Methodology/approach Our findings are based on an intensive, systematic, and comprehensive content analysis of 10 years of the Proceedings from the American Sociology Society’s Annual Meetings, 1906–1915. Findings Three key themes emerged from the content analysis of the proceedings of the first 10 years of the papers delivered at the Annual Meetings (1906–1915). First, people with disabilities were largely invisible in those papers. Second, influenced strongly by a social reform agenda which stressed progress and the powerful eugenics movement of the time, those early presenters who addressed people with disabilities in their papers vilified them. Third, their denigration was met largely with silence in the printed commentary which followed in the proceedings. Research implications In order to understand the present limited attention to disability, researchers need to know the historical context. Originality/value Although there have been a number of thoughtful books, edited volumes and review essays exploring the history of the discipline of sociology, none of them have attended to the history of disability within the field. This paper contributes to that historical understanding

Aesthetics · Art · Criminology · Geography · Human sexuality · Invisibility · Silence · Sociology · Visibility · Canadian Identity and History · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Gender Studies · History · Social and Cultural Dynamics