Browsing by Subject "sosiaalinen vammaistutkimus"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
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(2018)Aims. The purpose of this follow-up study (Pesonen, Itkonen, Nislin, 2017) was to analyse how autism-spectrum disorder is represented in leading newspapers in Finland. The disorder is frequently perceived in rather negative light in media. Medical approach focusing on symptoms, diagnosis and treatment has been prevailing. The goals of this study were on one hand to broaden, on the other hand to deepen examination of the phenomenon focusing on representation of autism-spectrum in mass media. The study examines what perceptions of the disorder, education and learning are highligted in newspapers and how educational legislative reforms and development projects are represented in news regarding autism-spectrum disorder. Theoretical framework is based on inclusive education, social model of disability and medicalisation. Methods. The research material consisted of the three leading newspapers’ digital articles on the disorder found with the search word ”autism” during the period 1995─2017. Altogether 456 articles were identified; out of which 109 pieces were included into the education and learning category establishing the core research material. The research period was initiated prior to the Basic Education Law 628/1998 when all students regardless of the forms of support were transferred to mainstream education. The research methods were content analysis and framing analysis frequently applied in media studies. Results and Conclusions. In the research analysis news articles were placed in thematic categories that were teaching arrangements, learning, societal structures, working life, rehabilitation and accessibility. Majority of the articles focused on rehabilitation and teaching arrangements and minority on accessibility. Across the data focus was on medical aspects instead of inclusive or social model of disability. Articles did not report to a large degree on educational law reforms or special education development projects.
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(2019)The purpose of the research is to examine the way in which disabilities are viewed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Social approach to disabilities which emphasizes the roles of society, culture and language as key elements in defining disability as a phenomenon as opposed to a straightforward medical definition. In addition, the research is further defined by theological literature concerning disability as well as special educational approach to disabilities. The literature, in conjunction with theological and pedagogical approaches, is used to define the understanding of disability as consisting of both institutional and cultural components. This study examines how the understanding of disability is constructed in official church documents and the discourse used by church employees. The corpus of this qualitative case study consists of documents and a series of interviews. The interviews, in which the interviewees were various church employees, were carried out as semi-structured theme interviews. The official documents include both theological and administrative papers on disability that are issued by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. This corpus is analysed using discourse analysis. Various types of discourse that can be identified are subsequently compared. The study further analyses the corpus of interviews to identify two distinct components of the understanding of disability therein. The first component includes the disabling effects of society and attitudes towards disabilities. These views reflect the themes present in the official church documents, human rights and Christian theology and tradition. Christian theology and tradition can be seen to be applied and adjusted in order to account for these views. The second component of the understanding of disability consists of personal experiences which give rise to narratives simultaneously combining both tragic and romantic elements. The study confirms that the official understanding of disability is present in the discourse of church employees. Even though most interviewees were unfamiliar with the official church documents on disability, the study shows significant similarities between the official church texts and the discourses present in the corpus consisting of the employees’ interviews.
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(2013)My master's thesis is a study of citizenship and its ideals in disability policy from the perspective of critical ability studies. The main focus of ability studies is to analyze ableism and how it produces ideals of perfect humanness. Therefore, from the perspective of ableism these ideals produce disability and impairments as something intolerable as well as inherently and ontologically negative. My study focused on the disability policy paradigm as it is after the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities from the year 2006. The disability policy paradigm emphasizes both the rights of people with disabilities to full citizenship and their participation in society. The study data included 20 documents from European, national and municipal disability policies, released from 2006 onwards. In this study I explored how ableism defines the construction of full citizenship and how ableism affects individual's possibilities to participate as citizen according to the current disability policy. As my research method, I applied interpretative reading style based on the New Rhetoric. In the current disability policy paradigm the ideal of full citizenship is based on individualistic and neoliberalistic views, which emphasize self-mastery and independence. This ideal is impossible for people with disabilities because self-mastery and independence are defined as autonomy from other people and social services. Moreover, falling short from the ideal is located in ontologically negative space. Subsequently the bodies with impairments are always seen as imperfect and defective as well as economically burdening. Emphasizing the physical imperfectness of individuals defines their possibilities to participate in society because this participation is emulating the ideal. Also, the individuals with disabilities are forced to repeat their imperfectness in order to obtain social services, which enable participation. Ontological discrimination of people with disabilities is evident in the disability policy, even though it contradicts the aims of the policy.
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