1. d.goodley@sheffield.ac.uk & k.runswick-cole@mmu.ac.uk
Big Society? Disabled People with Learning Disabilities and Civil Society
This research project is a partnership between Manchester Metropolitan University; The University of Sheffield; The University of Bristol and Northumbria University as well as SpeakUp; Mencap; Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities; Pathways Associates; Manchester Learning Disability Partnership; Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Circles of Support.
We ask: how are people with learning disabilities faring in a time of Big Society?
For more details, please visit:
Briefing Card 11: Personhood & Personalisation
Big Society? Disabled People with Learning Disabilities & Civil Society
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2. Personhood & Personalisation
We found that:
‘Person-centred’ approaches have been at the heart of policy for disabled people with learning disabilities in the UK since 2001.
Person centred approaches focus on the capacities, rather than the deficits, of the individual at the heart of the plan;
Issues of choice and control are important in person-centred approaches
Despite the focus on the need to listen to people with learning disabilities, many are not heard and some experience neglect and abuse;
Philosophers have long debated what it means to be a ‘person’ and sometimes, they have concluded that people with learning disabilities are not ‘fully human’;
We think that:
Such debates can be experienced as acts of ‘symbolic violence’ in disabled people’s lives;
We need to question concepts of personhood that are built on mythical notions of competence, independence and rationality;
We need to promote an understanding of personhood that recognises vulnerability and interconnections in all our lives.
Runswick-Cole, K. (2014) Personhood and personalisation