Summary
Contents
Subject index
Disability in South Asia: Knowledge & Experience presents a comprehensive approach to various aspects of disability in South Asia. A critical work on disability studies, this book explores the full complexity of disability in its multi-layered, interactional dynamics. The book imparts understanding of the social, political and cultural construction of disability as opposed to the traditional perception of disability in terms of medical condition, biological trait, rehabilitation and special education. It focuses on foregrounding disability across various areas including education, law and sociology, critically exploring the interaction of gender and disability, and challenging the separation between theory and practice as well as academia and activism. The book shows how the inclusion of a disability perspective enriches scholarship by contributing to the understanding of social marginalization, oppression and the perception of difference. It highlights the lived experiences of people with disabilities to help readers develop a nuanced comprehension of disability.
Disability across Cultures
Disability across Cultures
Introduction: Conceptualizing Culture
This chapter aims at an examination of the category of disability through the lens of ‘culture’. Culture is a concept that has a long and contested history. Anthropologists and sociologists have used it as a comprehensive term encapsulating both material and non-material artefacts, ideas and ways of living that mark a particular society or community as distinct. In this sense, culture includes the entire gamut of knowledge, beliefs, customs, ways of doing things and living in the world that human beings acquire by virtue of their membership in society. Culture is a learned system of meanings and behaviour transmitted inter-generationally. However, it is crucial to note that cultures are never ...
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