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ERIC Number: EJ1164895
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0017-8055
EISSN: N/A
In Search of Community: Lessons from Idealized Independence for Adults with Disabilities
Boelé, Amy L.
Harvard Educational Review, v87 n3 p380-403 Fall 2017
In this article, Amy Boelé presents a conceptualization of community that challenges the goal of independence as an ultimate ideal. Building on in situ tensions within independence ideologies, she illustrates the contradictions that exist when the approach to achieving community access for individuals with developmental disabilities requires full independence. Such an approach serves as a kind of assimilation to the dominant, nondisabled group's practices, which brings about contradictions that maintain oppressive forces. Using excerpts from interviews and personal recollections, she theorizes how a reconceptualization of community might empower individuals with disabilities to be contributors to their communities. She argues against considering independence as the emancipatory opposition to institutionalization. She contends that true community, as a mutual site of unconditional giving and resisted oppression, is what counters discrimination, segregation, and control, rejecting the false dichotomy of independence and institutionalism.
Harvard Education Publishing Group. 8 Story Street First Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. Tel: 617-495-3432; Fax: 617-496-3584; e-mail: hepg@harvard.edu; Web site: http://hepg.org/her-home/home
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A