Engaging in the disablement process over space and time

Narratives of persons with multiple sclerosis in Ottawa, Canada

Bibliographic Data

ID8423972
AuthorsMichelle Driedger (0000-0003-3769-5785, Carleton University, corresponding author), S Michelle Driedger, Valorie A Crooks (0000-0002-2834-0213, Carleton University, corresponding author), David Bennett (0000-0002-0676-1623, Carleton University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume48
Issue2
Pages119-136
Publication date2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-3658 • E-ISSN: 1541-0064
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.0008-3658.2004.00051.x
OpenAlexW2142479328
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited32

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the narratives of 15 men and women who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) living in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Relatively little is known about how people who are affected by MS cope with the challenges posed by social and physical barriers in their environment. Our research investigates two objectives: (1) to explore how those who have developed MS cope with their disease and resulting impairments, both in terms of the bodily experiences of becoming a chronically ill person and in terms of how they cope with changing relationships, changing identities and challenges in their physical environment; and (2) how they engage in the process of disablement over time and space as a result of these changing social and spatial relationships. We argue that the physical body and its social placings in public and private spaces are intertwined and both affect experiences of health, ability, impairment, disability and chronic illness. We further argue that these relationships are experienced across time and space, and in place, as people who have developed a chronic illness, such as MS, engage in, with and through the process of disablement. This article demonstrates the need for researchers to pay more attention to the role and significance of the simultaneity of space, place and time in shaping the experiences of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, as it has been shown that these variables played a significant role in regulating the everyday experiences of this study's respondents

Affect (linguistics) · Developmental psychology · Narrative · Physical disability · Psychiatry · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Communication · Disability Rights and Representation · Inclusion and Disability in Education and Sport · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Gerontology

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