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- Author or Editor: Kelley Johnson x
What does it mean to live a good life? Why has it proved so difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to live one? What happens when we make a good life the centre of our consideration of people with intellectual disabilities? These questions are explored through a re-examination of ideas from philosophy and social theory, and through personal life stories. This important and timely book provides an analysis and critique of current policies and underpinning ideologies in relation to people with intellectual disabilities and explores ways in which a good life may be made more attainable.
This chapter provides a case study of an important policy goal, which is the centrality of paid work. It is also considered as the ultimate badge of citizenship and inclusion. The chapter outlines the different ways that work has been made for people who have intellectual disabilities. It also shows the way work has been socially constructed in different eras, and asks whether the modern fetish around work as a defence against social exclusion is really justified.
This chapter talks about the different ways the problems presented by intellectual impairment has been framed and the different solutions adopted. These include the problem in the early twentieth century, to the current one, which is the presence of the denial of opportunities and supports to live a good life. The chapter also argues that since the twentieth century, people have moved from excluding those who are regarded as unequal under the social contract to the theoretical inclusion of these people within this framework.
This chapter tries to determine how a good life has been constituted at different times and in different places. It does not aim to provide a detailed account of the nature of ‘a good life’. Rather, the chapter tries to provide some glimpses into how a person may think about a good life and the way the definitions of it are framed by place and time. It also explores the different values that seem to support the idea of a good life during the twenty-first century in most of the ‘developed countries’. The increasing tension between the idealisation of community and the growing focus on individualism in these societies is also studied.
This chapter identifies the emergence of ideas about a good life in policy. It tries to deconstruct some of the theoretical and conceptual perspectives that have framed the search for a good life. The discussion is particularly concerned with the values that lie behind each of these conceptualisations and their connections to the ideas of what makes a good life. The chapter also looks at the contributions of some key theories to current policy.
This chapter looks at the implications of how a good life has been represented in Western societies for those with intellectual disabilities. It explores the ways in which people’s views of a good life seem to exclude some groups of people from the possibility of living one. The chapter investigates the way in which some groups are identified within society as outside the parameters of achieving ‘the good life’. It concludes that efforts to make ‘good lives’ through policy and practice are actually limited by the ways the very concept of a good life has been conceived in societies and by the ways people who have intellectual disability are seen by others.
This chapter provides a detailed account of the personal experiences of Marie Wolfe, a woman with intellectual disabilities. It presents her search for a good life and shows a grounded model of the themes this book wishes to explore. The chapter also includes a graphic illustration of Wolfe’s difficulties and triumphs during her search for a good life.
This chapter discusses community and inclusion, which can be frequently found in policy. It reviews these two as mechanisms that can help one achieve a better life, but finds them wanting. The chapter proposes as an alternative that relationship building and ‘belonging’ may provide more tangible ideas to inform one’s journey to a good life.
This chapter studies the implications for both the paid and unpaid workforce. It deconstructs the roles based on thinking about advocacy, and also proposes what paid and unpaid workers need to know and do if support is to move beyond ‘tending’. The focus of the discussion is on the idea of independence, one that is prominent in current thinking.
What does it mean to live a good life? Why has it proved so difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to live one? What happens when we make a good life the centre of our consideration of people with intellectual disabilities? This book explores these questions through a re-examination of ideas from philosophy and social theory, and through personal life stories. It provides an analysis and critique of current policies and underpinning ideologies in relation to people with intellectual disabilities, and explores ways in which a good life may be made more attainable.
