Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Complex and Critical: A Methodological Application of the Tripartite Model of Disability

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Critical Readings in Interdisciplinary Disability Studies

Part of the book series: Critical Studies of Education ((CSOE,volume 12))

Abstract

A few of years ago I was invited to contribute a paper to David Mitchell’s panel at the Society for Disability Studies Conference, Minneapolis, 2014, entitled Non-Normative Positivisms: Towards a Methodology of Critical Embodiment, the SDS panel to which I refer throughout this chapter also included work by Stephanie Kerschbaum and the late Tobin Siebers. The premise was that the concept of non-normative positivisms would open up a space from which we could sketch out an alternative ethics about why and how disabled lives matter (Mitchell 2014). Though appreciative of the salient assertion that disabled people must be allowed to pursue our lives much as non-disabled people pursue their lives, the panel set out to argue that in practice this ethical trajectory is defined by limitations and serves to bolster the desirability of the normate subject position. At the time of this invitation I was completing a book that explored distinctions between ableism and disablism (Bolt 2014a), which I pondered with the theme of the panel in mind and came up with the idea of the tripartite model of disability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    I introduced the tripartite model of disability at the SDS Conference before exploring it in a couple of keynote presentations at the University of Liverpool in 2014 and Lancaster University in 2015, organised by Maryam Farhani and Alan Gregory, respectively. Since then, based on the model, I have had an article accepted for publication in Disability & Society; another is under consideration with the Journal of Further and Higher Education; and my partner Heidi Mapley and I have completed a chapter for the forthcoming InVisible Difference book that focuses on the intersection of dance, disability, and law.

  2. 2.

    I have sensory and physical impairments as a result of retinitis pigmentosa and psoriatic arthritis, meaning I am generally and easily identified as a disabled person. This is my rationale for the way in which I employ the pronoun we when referring to disabled people throughout the chapter.

References

  • Allan, J. (2011). Complicating, not explicating: Taking up philosophy in learning disability research. Learning Disability Quarterly, 34(2), 153–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashby, C. (2010). The trouble with normal: The struggle for meaningful access for middle school students with developmental disability labels. Disability and Society, 25(3), 345–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, H.-D., & Murray, J. M. (2009). Reframing: From hearing loss to deaf gain. Deaf Studies Digital Journal, 1(Fall), 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. (1998). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and method. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, D. (2014a). Changing social attitudes toward disability: Perspectives from historical, cultural, and educational studies. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bolt, D. (2014b). The metanarrative of blindness: A re-reading of twentieth-century Anglophone writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, F. K. (2009). Frontiers of ableism. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, F. K. (2008). Exploring internalized ableism using critical race theory. Disability and Society, 23(2), 151–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, F. K. (2001). Inciting legal fictions: Disability’s date with ontology and the ableist body of the law. Griffith Law Review, 10, 42–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, L. (2001). Cognitive ableism and disability studies: Feminist reflections on the history of mental retardation. Hypatia, 16(4), 124–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collinson, C. (2014). “Lexism” and the temporal problem of defining “dyslexia”. In D. Bolt (Ed.), Changing social attitudes toward disability: Perspectives from historical, cultural, and educational studies (pp. 153–161). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, L. J. (1995). Enforcing normalcy: Disability, deafness and the body. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deal, M. (2007). Aversive disablism: Subtle prejudice toward disabled people. Disability and Society, 22(1), 93–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenhauer, J. (2007). Just looking and staring back: Challenging ableism through disability performance art. Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research, 49(1), 7–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (2013). Disability Gain. Liverpool: Address to Avoidance in/and the Academy: The International Conference on Disability, Culture, and Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland-Thomson, R. (1997). Extraordinary bodies: Figuring physical disability in American culture and literature. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goggin, G., & Newell, C. (2003). Disability in Australia: Exposing a social apartheid. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodley, D. (2014). Dis/ability Studies: Theorising disablism and ableism. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Harpur, P. (2012). From disability to ability: Changing the phrasing of the debate. Disability and Society, 27(3), 325–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodge, N., & Runswick-Cole, K. (2013). “They never pass me the ball”: Exposing ableism through the leisure experiences of disabled children, young people, and their families. Children’s Geographies, 11(3), 311–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jay, M. (1994). Downcast eyes: The denigration of vision in twentieth-century French thought. London: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, T. (2013). Disability, able-bodiedness, and the biopolitical imagination. Review of Disability Studies, 9(1), 26–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerschbaum, S. L. (2014). Accessing Non-Normative Positivisms: Disabling Research Interviewing. Non-Normative Positivisms SDS 2014 Panel [online]. The Society for Disability Studies in Minneapolis, MN. Accessed July 28, 2015, from https://nonnormativepositivisms.wordpress.com/.

  • Kirtley, D. D. (1975). The psychology of blindness. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleege, G. (1999). Sight unseen. London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuppers, P. (2009). Toward a rhizomatic model of disability: Poetry, performance, and touch. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 3(3), 221–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madriaga, M. (2007). Enduring disablism: Students with dyslexia and their pathways into UK higher education and beyond. Disability and Society, 22(4), 399–412.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P., Parker, S., & Gillinson, S. (2004). Disablism: How to tackle the last prejudice. London: Demos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. T. (2014). Panel Introduction. Non-Normative Positivisms SDS 2014 Panel [online]. The Society for Disability Studies in Minneapolis, MN. Accessed July 28, 2015, from https://nonnormativepositivisms.wordpress.com/.

  • Mitchell, D. T., & Snyder, S. L. (2015). The biopolitics of disability: Neoliberalism, ablenationalism, and peripheral embodiment. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Monbeck, M. E. (1973). The meaning of blindness: Attitudes toward blindness and blind people. London: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prendergast, C. (2014). Mental disability and rhetoricity retold: The memoir on drugs. In D. Bolt (Ed.), Changing social attitudes toward disability: Perspectives from historical, cultural, and educational studies (pp. 60–68). Abingdon: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sava, G. (1987). Happiness is blind. London: Robert Hale Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Savarese, R. J. (2009). Lyric anger and the Victrola in the attic: An interview with Stephen Kuusisto. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 3(2), 195–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siebers, T. (2014). Returning the Social to the Social Model. Non-Normative Positivisms SDS 2014 Panel [online]. The Society for Disability Studies in Minneapolis, MN. Accessed July 28, 2015, from https://nonnormativepositivisms.wordpress.com/.

  • Sunderland, N., Catalano, T., & Kendall, E. (2009). Missing discourses: Concepts of joy and happiness in disability. Disability and Society, 24(6), 703–714.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swain, J., & French, S. (2000). Towards an affirmation model of disability. Disability and Society, 15(4), 569–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. (2007). Sociologies of disability, “impairment,” and chronic illness: Ideas in disability studies and medical sociology. London: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. (2004). Developing the social relational in the social model of disability: A theoretical agenda. In C. Barnes & G. Mercer (Eds.), Implementing the social model of disability: Theory and research (pp. 32–47). Leeds: The Disability Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rauscher, L., & McClintock, M. (1997). Ableism curriculum design. In M. Adams, L. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice: A sourcebook (pp. 198–230). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolbring, G. (2008). The politics of ableism. Development, 51, 252–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Culture and Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK

    David Bolt

Authors
  1. David Bolt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Bolt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Scholar, Corrales, NM, USA

    Linda Ware

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bolt, D. (2020). Complex and Critical: A Methodological Application of the Tripartite Model of Disability. In: Ware, L. (eds) Critical Readings in Interdisciplinary Disability Studies. Critical Studies of Education, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35309-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35309-4_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35307-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35309-4

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation