Accessibility as a discourse of space in Canadian housing cooperatives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2467144 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Margaret Rodman, Margaret Critchlow Rodman (York University), Matthew Cooper (0000-0002-7373-6372, McMaster University) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 589-601 |
| Publication date | 1995-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Ethnologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/ae.1995.22.3.02a00070 |
| OpenAlex | W2141770104 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 13 |
Wheelchair accessibility is more than a matter of grab bars, ramps, and door widths. Accessibility can also be understood as a way of thinking and talking about the rights of people with disabilities that contains a critique of the notion of disability itself. This article examines the social and cultural construction of accessibility in the context of a particular kind of nonprofit rental housing in Canada. We present findings from a study of 17 urban housing cooperatives with varying degrees of accessibility, including three "fully accessible" co-ops. We are particularly concerned with issues of power and control in narratives about building accessible co-ops. We are also interested in spatial assumptions and how residents express their experience in spatial terms. Spaces framed by a discourse of accessibility and built to the standards of wheelchair-users express a shift in power toward people with disabilities. Yet these spaces also reveal the diversity of people's needs. We conclude that discourses and practices of accessibility both inscribe difference in the built environment and deny it, allowing people to assert individual freedom, control, and choice. [accessibility, space, housing, cooperatives, Canada
Context (archaeology · Control (management · Diversity (politics · Economics · Geography · Linguistics · Management · Narrative · Political science · Power (physics · Rental housing · Renting · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Wheelchair · Computer Science · Disability Rights and Representation · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Urban Transport and Accessibility
Beyond “Culture”
The Built Environment and Spatial Form
Disability Management in Cross-Cultural Contexts
Anthropology in Disability Research and Rehabilitation
Physical disability and social liminality
Conflicts over Use Values in an Urban Canadian Housing Cooperative
The Sociocultural Production of Urban Space
Introduction
Empowering Place
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,16 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2017 (24) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |