Browsing by Author "Saukkonen, Eero"

This Master’s thesis concerns the self-making practices of persons with physical disabilities in Zambia. The thesis is grounded in data gathered across three months of fieldwork conducted mostly in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. The bulk of these data consists of semi-structured interviews with individuals who were long-time users of mobility aids, namely orthopaedic prostheses and braces, crutches and wheelchairs. The study aims to contribute to broadening the available literature on the subjective experiences of disability, literature that has so far been sparse and disproportionately focused on Europe and North America. In this study, the task of self-making is approached through Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘technologies of the self’. Dissonant scholarship on ‘practices of freedom’ – technologies of the self that are applied with critical reflection – is examined to construct a workable synthesis. The resultant theoretical construction is then applied to the technologies used by Zambian persons with disabilities to determine whether these may be called practices of freedom. The common assertion in much of the Foucauldian scholarship that practices of freedom lead individuals to practice power in a manner that advances social equality is also interrogated in light of the present study. The study divides the examined technologies of the self into two groups; those that take as their object the physical being in the world of the individual with disabilities, and those that focus on addressing the narratives – both external and internalised – concerning disability and the individual. Technologies of the former kind examined include the management of one’s apparent level of impairment through the selective use and concealment of assistive devices; the incorporation of one’s mobility aids into the body-image; autonomous movement; and the refusal of help. Technologies in the latter category include accepting disability; challenging preconceptions of inability through example; engaging with others to sensitise them to disability; and self-narration that emphasises capability, mobility, financial stability and universal relevance of impairment. This thesis argues that dominant local discourse in Zambia still necessitates persons with disabilities to acquire first the capacity to question the prevailing norms surrounding themselves in order to achieve the kind of autonomy exhibited by the informants in the study. In accordance with the constructed theoretical synthesis, this critical awareness qualifies the technologies of the self utilised by the informants as practices of freedom. On the basis of its modest scope, the study gives conditional backing to the idea that practices of freedom create individuals that contribute to processes of social liberation. It is also noted, however, that technologies that may be considered practices of freedom in the context of disability may simultaneously work to reinforce other oppressive power relationships, such as those concerning gender, and that more research is needed on the intersection of disability with other marginalised identities in order to better understand these connections. In the meanwhile, the study encourages researchers to take care to respect the freedom of their subjects to not advance transformative social agendas with their every action.