P. David Howe | University of Western Ontario (original) (raw)
Papers by P. David Howe
Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, Jul 8, 2016
Social scientific research requires engagement with individuals, groups and or organisations embe... more Social scientific research requires engagement with individuals, groups and or organisations embedded within specific sectors and locations. The 'Sport for a Better World?' project aimed to examine the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector within multiple international locations through fieldwork conducted by a four-person research team. This paper discusses the methodological benefits and challenges of this methodological approach, with a particular focus on working with individuals and groups as gatekeepers, encultured informants, translators and volunteers. In turn, we describe and contextualise the levels of exchange expected by stakeholder partners as well as the implications of our identity as white, international researchers. Overall, we argue for the importance of understanding: the agency and needs of local actors amidst transnational networks; the extent to which history and politics inform everyday experiences and contemporary research encounters; and the likelihood that unequal power relations, particularly along lines of race, class and geography will affect data collection and interpretation. We also discuss various methodological strategies we negotiated in-the-field, and how these insights inform our understandings of the social, political and cultural environment in which SDP programmes operate in different locations.
BMJ Open, 2022
Objectives This study used a mixed-method approach to explore cultural and ethnic influences on t... more Objectives This study used a mixed-method approach to explore cultural and ethnic influences on the perception of, and decision to engage with or not to engage with, physical activity and exercise therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Design Qualitative research was conducted through the use of semistructured interviews and focus groups. Selfreported physical activity levels were measured using the General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPPAQ), and self-efficacy for exercise with Bandura's Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale. Setting This study was conducted in a non-clinical setting of a single National Health Service Hospital Trust between April 2018 and July 2019. Participants Participants >18 years of age with a diagnosis of CKD, from black African, black Caribbean, South Asian or white ethnicity were eligible for the study. 84 patients with a diagnosis of CKD (stages 2-5), aged 25-79 (mean age 57) were recruited. Semistructured interviews (n=20) and six single-sex, ethnic-specific focus group discussions were undertaken (n=36). Outcomes Primary outcome was to explore the perceptions, attitudes and values about exercise and physical activity in different ethnic groups through qualitative interviews, analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Questionnaires were analysed using Pearson correlation to determine if there was a significant relationship between the self-efficacy and GPPAQ levels. Results Qualitative analysis provided four primary themes: I am who I am, Change of identity, Influences to physical activity and exercise and Support and education. Quantitative analysis using Pearson correlation revealed a significant correlation between GPPAQ levels of activity and self-efficacy to regulate exercise behaviour (r=−0.40, p=0.001). Conclusion Understanding the cultural, attitudes and beliefs of individuals with CKD from a variety of ethnic backgrounds is complex. Understanding of patients' experiences, thoughts and beliefs may be of relevance to clinicians when designing CKD exercise services. Trial registration number NCT03709212; Pre-results.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly
Although the Paralympic Games have been around for over 60 years, women remain underrepresented i... more Although the Paralympic Games have been around for over 60 years, women remain underrepresented in almost all aspects of the Paralympic Movement. It has been suggested that a way to increase women’s involvement is through the implementation of mixed-gender events. On paper, this approach makes sense. However, when it comes to the implementation of mixed-gender opportunities for women, it is less clear how effective these events are in increasing participation by women in Para sport. Through document analysis and interviews with athletes and organizers of mixed-gender Paralympic sport, we explore the various strategies that four mixed-gender sports have used to address the issue of gender parity. Using critical feminist theories, we illustrate how larger social, political, and cultural ideas about gender influence women’s experiences within these events and discuss the potential of using mixed-gender initiatives to address gender parity within the Paralympic Movement.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 5, 2022
Sport in Society, Apr 10, 2021
The role of parents has always been instrumental for their children’s initial engagement in sport... more The role of parents has always been instrumental for their children’s initial engagement in sport. For athletes with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), the role of a parent gains adde...
European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity, 2009
The state of inclusion for students with disabilities in general physical education (GPE) varies ... more The state of inclusion for students with disabilities in general physical education (GPE) varies across European countries. In many countries inclusive physical education is still a developing practice. The purpose of this review of literature published in English is to highlight current debates surrounding the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education, in hope that there might be a degree of consensus of opinion surrounding the facilitation of inclusive practices within Europe. This review covers an eight year period commencing in early 2000. A total of twenty seven articles are highlighted in this review using the Theoretical Model for the Study of Classroom Teaching (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974) which suggests that study of teaching and learning involve four variables: presage (teacher), context (students), process (interaction) and product. The ultimate aim of this review is to use recent publications in the field of APA to highlight a need for the establishment of professional guidelines for successful implementation of good practice within GPE throughout Europe.
Kinesiology Review, 2016
In this paper we present a scoping review of literature on aging, visual impairment, and physical... more In this paper we present a scoping review of literature on aging, visual impairment, and physical activity. Our objectives are to: (a) explore the available literature on aging, physical activity, and sight loss; (b) describe how participation in physical activity by older adults with visual impairment is understood by researchers; and, (c) identify benefits, barriers, and facilitators of physical activity participation as reported by older adults with age-related sight loss. Over 2,000 sources were reviewed, with 30 studies meeting eligibility criteria. Findings were organized into four thematic categories, namely: (a) participation rates; (b) health inequalities; (c) barriers to physical activity participation; and, (d) benefits of physical activity participation. Through this scoping review process, extant knowledge was synthesized and gaps in the literature were critically assessed. To address these gaps, several avenues for future research are outlined and described, alongside ...
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, May 1, 2018
In this paper, we explore the significance of parasport in highlighting an emancipatory understan... more In this paper, we explore the significance of parasport in highlighting an emancipatory understanding of difference and enhancing social empowerment. By illuminating the influence of ableist ideology upon people with impairments we draw upon the field of disability studies. We ultimately argue that rather than being supressed, difference should be recognised and valued in parasport practices and ideologies, leading to a pluralist culture, in which further and wider social emancipation can be grounded. Acceptance of difference is an absolute and essential precondition for parasport cultures to promote positive social change for people with disabilities.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 2012
This paper is a call to Adapted Physical Activity (APA) professionals to increase the reflexive n... more This paper is a call to Adapted Physical Activity (APA) professionals to increase the reflexive nature of their practice. Drawing upon Foucault's concept of governmentality (1977) APA action may work against its own publicized goals of empowerment and self-determination. To highlight these inconsistencies, we will draw upon historical and social factors that explain the implicit dangers of practice not following policy. We propose that APA practitioners work according to ethical guidelines, based upon a capabilities approach (Nussbaum, 2006, 2011; Sen, 2009) to counteract possible adverse effects of APA practitioner action. A capabilities approach is conducive to the development of each individual's human potential, by holistically considering the consequences of physical activity (i.e., biological, cultural, social, and psychological dimensions). To conclude, this paper will offer suggestions that may lead to an ethical reflection aligned with the best interest of APA's users.
La Nouvelle revue de l'adaptation et de la scolarisation, 2012
Cet article souligne l’importance d’inscrire les Activites physiques adaptees (APA) dans un cadre... more Cet article souligne l’importance d’inscrire les Activites physiques adaptees (APA) dans un cadre ethique. Lequel, a notre avis, permet de maintenir ces activites dans le droit-fil de la mission qui leur est devolue. L’auteur met en lumiere une relative carence dans la reflexion critique sur les questions ethiques concernant les APA. Il reaffirme l’interet d’une approche par les capacites, en tant qu’outil visant a eliminer les dependances et privations sociales qui sont encore trop souvent associees a la difference. Une comprehension globale du developpement humain dans les APA s’avere plus pertinente que la vision actuelle privilegiee, celle de l’autonomisation. Les opportunites offertes au public des APA par une approche ethique et reflexive rendent possible, on tente de le montrer, une vue plurielle du monde, ou la difference n’est plus consideree comme anormale ou discriminante.
Somatechnics, Aug 1, 2021
In this article we elucidate our understanding of the utility of a particular posthumanist lens t... more In this article we elucidate our understanding of the utility of a particular posthumanist lens to expose the fragility of compulsory ablebodiedness. Compulsory ablebodiedness is a central tool of crip theory that shows us how society reproduces disability as an expression of an ableist ideology. This positions those perceived as having ‘less-than-able’ bodies and minds as subaltern. Adopting our methodological position from crip theory, we explore how dis§abled bodies are co-produced along with the environments in which they pursue sport. Interpreting ethnographic data with, in, and around dis§abled bodies, we examine their lived realities and performed identities as biopolitical assemblages that are, at one and the same time, both subject and object in a state of what we term complex dis§able embodiment. The article begins by acknowledging the existence of disablism while also exploring the ideology of ableism, which leads to the social marginalisation of nonnormative bodies. We then articulate dis§ability as a choregraphed tango in which bodies and their environments are co-constituted, before cripping ableism in and through three manifestations of dis§abled sporting bodies. The end goal is to facilitate the celebration of nonnormativity as a positive expression of the plurality of human existence.
Societies, May 23, 2019
This paper illuminates the potential of diversely embodied sporting cultures to challenge ableism... more This paper illuminates the potential of diversely embodied sporting cultures to challenge ableism, the ideology of ability. Ableism constructs the able body as conditional to a life worth living, thus devaluing all those perceived as 'dis'-abled. This hegemonic ideology develops into a 'logic of practice' through a cultural appropriation of body's lived complexity, by reducing it to symbolic dichotomies (able/disabled). The path to challenge ableism is then to restore body's complexity, by turning attention toward its lived embodied existence. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of a sitting volleyball (SV) community, we condense multiple data sources into a sensuous creative non-fiction vignette to translate the physical embodied culture of the sport. In exploring SV physicality through the ethnographic vignette, it is our intention to activate the readers' own embodiment when interpreting and co-creating this text. By placing the reader in the lived reality of playing SV, we hope that the potential of this physical culture to destabilize engrained ableist premises becomes apparent. Ultimately, our goal is to promote a shift from ableism towards an appreciation and celebration of differently able bodies. This cultural shift is crucial for long lasting social empowerment for people with disabilities.
South African Journal for Research in Sport Physical Education and Recreation, 2017
The Paralympic Games is celebrated in the mainstream media in line with the vision of the Interna... more The Paralympic Games is celebrated in the mainstream media in line with the vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) 'To enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world.' In this paper we explore the degree to which the flagship of parasport has acted as a catalyst for an enhanced social and cultural understanding of disabled embodiments. Drawing upon a Foucauldian conceptualisation of biopower in connection with Harraway's articulation of the cyborg, we highlight how hybrid bodies inevitably fail to promote embodied difference because they constitute, in and of themselves, a product of "normalizing" technology. In light of critiques such as that of the sporting supercrip, we argue that the heroic glorification of Paralympic cyborgs further amplifies the inadequacy of non-cyborg disabled bodies, whose impairments cannot be "compensated for" by movement technologies. Ultimately, this paper is a call to reflect upon how parasport culture can enhance its ability to deliver the empowerment ideal encapsulated within its vision.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Oct 6, 2022
Movement & Sport Sciences, 2017
Since the turn of the century, the Paralympic movement has gained a high public profile. We will ... more Since the turn of the century, the Paralympic movement has gained a high public profile. We will argue that this new high profile is a direct result of the focus of media attention upon new technologies of prosthetic medicine that have helped to create a legion of cyborg bodies that is manifest in the image of the contemporary sporting supercrip. This paper highlights the development of a technocentric ideology that has been embraced within the Paralympic movement. In embracing this ideology, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) began to celebrate the cyborgification of Paralympic bodies. Ultimately, this paper questions whether the advances in technology are actually empowering all disabled athletes or simply those who have the potential to be cyborgs.
![Research paper thumbnail of The fiddle of using the Paralympic Games as a vehicle for expanding [dis]ability sport participation](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/106755211/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Sport in Society, Sep 2, 2016
In this paper we highlight the need to explore the excessive significance given to the Paralympic... more In this paper we highlight the need to explore the excessive significance given to the Paralympic Games as a vehicle for the encouragement of participation of people with a disability within sport. The media spectacle around the games that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has worked tirelessly to develop has become, for policy makers and the public alike, a sufficient outlet for disability sport provision. We argue that the honourable goals of the IPC articulated through the ethos of Paralympism have been assumed to be valid for all people with a disability, yet in terms of widening participation, their utility is limited, as the Paralympics themselves are exclusionary. This paper first illuminates the relationship between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the IPC before we turn our attention to the ethos of Paralympism. Highlighting the necessity for 'sport for all' we show how a human rights lens, aided by a capabilities approach can facilitate better ways to educate the public about the need for equality of access to sporting participation opportunities.
Sociology of Sport Journal, Sep 1, 2021
In the UK, significant changes have occurred in the Paralympic media production environment and s... more In the UK, significant changes have occurred in the Paralympic media production environment and style of Paralympic broadcasting. Given the generative nature of media texts on cultural representation, we explore the circulation of disability narratives in contemporary Paralympic media coverage. Drawing on an integrated dataset that brings together textual analysis and audience perceptions, we highlight the presence of three disability narratives, termed: Extraordinary normalcy, ableist rehabilitation, and sporting ablenationalism. We unpack the ways these three narratives differ from the widely and commonly used 'supercrip' critique and discuss the implications of these narratives, and the wider cultural discourses and dialogue they generate, in terms of inclusion/exclusion and progressive social change.
Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, Jul 8, 2016
Social scientific research requires engagement with individuals, groups and or organisations embe... more Social scientific research requires engagement with individuals, groups and or organisations embedded within specific sectors and locations. The 'Sport for a Better World?' project aimed to examine the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector within multiple international locations through fieldwork conducted by a four-person research team. This paper discusses the methodological benefits and challenges of this methodological approach, with a particular focus on working with individuals and groups as gatekeepers, encultured informants, translators and volunteers. In turn, we describe and contextualise the levels of exchange expected by stakeholder partners as well as the implications of our identity as white, international researchers. Overall, we argue for the importance of understanding: the agency and needs of local actors amidst transnational networks; the extent to which history and politics inform everyday experiences and contemporary research encounters; and the likelihood that unequal power relations, particularly along lines of race, class and geography will affect data collection and interpretation. We also discuss various methodological strategies we negotiated in-the-field, and how these insights inform our understandings of the social, political and cultural environment in which SDP programmes operate in different locations.
BMJ Open, 2022
Objectives This study used a mixed-method approach to explore cultural and ethnic influences on t... more Objectives This study used a mixed-method approach to explore cultural and ethnic influences on the perception of, and decision to engage with or not to engage with, physical activity and exercise therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Design Qualitative research was conducted through the use of semistructured interviews and focus groups. Selfreported physical activity levels were measured using the General Practice Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPPAQ), and self-efficacy for exercise with Bandura's Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale. Setting This study was conducted in a non-clinical setting of a single National Health Service Hospital Trust between April 2018 and July 2019. Participants Participants >18 years of age with a diagnosis of CKD, from black African, black Caribbean, South Asian or white ethnicity were eligible for the study. 84 patients with a diagnosis of CKD (stages 2-5), aged 25-79 (mean age 57) were recruited. Semistructured interviews (n=20) and six single-sex, ethnic-specific focus group discussions were undertaken (n=36). Outcomes Primary outcome was to explore the perceptions, attitudes and values about exercise and physical activity in different ethnic groups through qualitative interviews, analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Questionnaires were analysed using Pearson correlation to determine if there was a significant relationship between the self-efficacy and GPPAQ levels. Results Qualitative analysis provided four primary themes: I am who I am, Change of identity, Influences to physical activity and exercise and Support and education. Quantitative analysis using Pearson correlation revealed a significant correlation between GPPAQ levels of activity and self-efficacy to regulate exercise behaviour (r=−0.40, p=0.001). Conclusion Understanding the cultural, attitudes and beliefs of individuals with CKD from a variety of ethnic backgrounds is complex. Understanding of patients' experiences, thoughts and beliefs may be of relevance to clinicians when designing CKD exercise services. Trial registration number NCT03709212; Pre-results.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly
Although the Paralympic Games have been around for over 60 years, women remain underrepresented i... more Although the Paralympic Games have been around for over 60 years, women remain underrepresented in almost all aspects of the Paralympic Movement. It has been suggested that a way to increase women’s involvement is through the implementation of mixed-gender events. On paper, this approach makes sense. However, when it comes to the implementation of mixed-gender opportunities for women, it is less clear how effective these events are in increasing participation by women in Para sport. Through document analysis and interviews with athletes and organizers of mixed-gender Paralympic sport, we explore the various strategies that four mixed-gender sports have used to address the issue of gender parity. Using critical feminist theories, we illustrate how larger social, political, and cultural ideas about gender influence women’s experiences within these events and discuss the potential of using mixed-gender initiatives to address gender parity within the Paralympic Movement.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 5, 2022
Sport in Society, Apr 10, 2021
The role of parents has always been instrumental for their children’s initial engagement in sport... more The role of parents has always been instrumental for their children’s initial engagement in sport. For athletes with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), the role of a parent gains adde...
European Journal of Adapted Physical Activity, 2009
The state of inclusion for students with disabilities in general physical education (GPE) varies ... more The state of inclusion for students with disabilities in general physical education (GPE) varies across European countries. In many countries inclusive physical education is still a developing practice. The purpose of this review of literature published in English is to highlight current debates surrounding the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education, in hope that there might be a degree of consensus of opinion surrounding the facilitation of inclusive practices within Europe. This review covers an eight year period commencing in early 2000. A total of twenty seven articles are highlighted in this review using the Theoretical Model for the Study of Classroom Teaching (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974) which suggests that study of teaching and learning involve four variables: presage (teacher), context (students), process (interaction) and product. The ultimate aim of this review is to use recent publications in the field of APA to highlight a need for the establishment of professional guidelines for successful implementation of good practice within GPE throughout Europe.
Kinesiology Review, 2016
In this paper we present a scoping review of literature on aging, visual impairment, and physical... more In this paper we present a scoping review of literature on aging, visual impairment, and physical activity. Our objectives are to: (a) explore the available literature on aging, physical activity, and sight loss; (b) describe how participation in physical activity by older adults with visual impairment is understood by researchers; and, (c) identify benefits, barriers, and facilitators of physical activity participation as reported by older adults with age-related sight loss. Over 2,000 sources were reviewed, with 30 studies meeting eligibility criteria. Findings were organized into four thematic categories, namely: (a) participation rates; (b) health inequalities; (c) barriers to physical activity participation; and, (d) benefits of physical activity participation. Through this scoping review process, extant knowledge was synthesized and gaps in the literature were critically assessed. To address these gaps, several avenues for future research are outlined and described, alongside ...
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America, May 1, 2018
In this paper, we explore the significance of parasport in highlighting an emancipatory understan... more In this paper, we explore the significance of parasport in highlighting an emancipatory understanding of difference and enhancing social empowerment. By illuminating the influence of ableist ideology upon people with impairments we draw upon the field of disability studies. We ultimately argue that rather than being supressed, difference should be recognised and valued in parasport practices and ideologies, leading to a pluralist culture, in which further and wider social emancipation can be grounded. Acceptance of difference is an absolute and essential precondition for parasport cultures to promote positive social change for people with disabilities.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 2012
This paper is a call to Adapted Physical Activity (APA) professionals to increase the reflexive n... more This paper is a call to Adapted Physical Activity (APA) professionals to increase the reflexive nature of their practice. Drawing upon Foucault's concept of governmentality (1977) APA action may work against its own publicized goals of empowerment and self-determination. To highlight these inconsistencies, we will draw upon historical and social factors that explain the implicit dangers of practice not following policy. We propose that APA practitioners work according to ethical guidelines, based upon a capabilities approach (Nussbaum, 2006, 2011; Sen, 2009) to counteract possible adverse effects of APA practitioner action. A capabilities approach is conducive to the development of each individual's human potential, by holistically considering the consequences of physical activity (i.e., biological, cultural, social, and psychological dimensions). To conclude, this paper will offer suggestions that may lead to an ethical reflection aligned with the best interest of APA's users.
La Nouvelle revue de l'adaptation et de la scolarisation, 2012
Cet article souligne l’importance d’inscrire les Activites physiques adaptees (APA) dans un cadre... more Cet article souligne l’importance d’inscrire les Activites physiques adaptees (APA) dans un cadre ethique. Lequel, a notre avis, permet de maintenir ces activites dans le droit-fil de la mission qui leur est devolue. L’auteur met en lumiere une relative carence dans la reflexion critique sur les questions ethiques concernant les APA. Il reaffirme l’interet d’une approche par les capacites, en tant qu’outil visant a eliminer les dependances et privations sociales qui sont encore trop souvent associees a la difference. Une comprehension globale du developpement humain dans les APA s’avere plus pertinente que la vision actuelle privilegiee, celle de l’autonomisation. Les opportunites offertes au public des APA par une approche ethique et reflexive rendent possible, on tente de le montrer, une vue plurielle du monde, ou la difference n’est plus consideree comme anormale ou discriminante.
Somatechnics, Aug 1, 2021
In this article we elucidate our understanding of the utility of a particular posthumanist lens t... more In this article we elucidate our understanding of the utility of a particular posthumanist lens to expose the fragility of compulsory ablebodiedness. Compulsory ablebodiedness is a central tool of crip theory that shows us how society reproduces disability as an expression of an ableist ideology. This positions those perceived as having ‘less-than-able’ bodies and minds as subaltern. Adopting our methodological position from crip theory, we explore how dis§abled bodies are co-produced along with the environments in which they pursue sport. Interpreting ethnographic data with, in, and around dis§abled bodies, we examine their lived realities and performed identities as biopolitical assemblages that are, at one and the same time, both subject and object in a state of what we term complex dis§able embodiment. The article begins by acknowledging the existence of disablism while also exploring the ideology of ableism, which leads to the social marginalisation of nonnormative bodies. We then articulate dis§ability as a choregraphed tango in which bodies and their environments are co-constituted, before cripping ableism in and through three manifestations of dis§abled sporting bodies. The end goal is to facilitate the celebration of nonnormativity as a positive expression of the plurality of human existence.
Societies, May 23, 2019
This paper illuminates the potential of diversely embodied sporting cultures to challenge ableism... more This paper illuminates the potential of diversely embodied sporting cultures to challenge ableism, the ideology of ability. Ableism constructs the able body as conditional to a life worth living, thus devaluing all those perceived as 'dis'-abled. This hegemonic ideology develops into a 'logic of practice' through a cultural appropriation of body's lived complexity, by reducing it to symbolic dichotomies (able/disabled). The path to challenge ableism is then to restore body's complexity, by turning attention toward its lived embodied existence. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of a sitting volleyball (SV) community, we condense multiple data sources into a sensuous creative non-fiction vignette to translate the physical embodied culture of the sport. In exploring SV physicality through the ethnographic vignette, it is our intention to activate the readers' own embodiment when interpreting and co-creating this text. By placing the reader in the lived reality of playing SV, we hope that the potential of this physical culture to destabilize engrained ableist premises becomes apparent. Ultimately, our goal is to promote a shift from ableism towards an appreciation and celebration of differently able bodies. This cultural shift is crucial for long lasting social empowerment for people with disabilities.
South African Journal for Research in Sport Physical Education and Recreation, 2017
The Paralympic Games is celebrated in the mainstream media in line with the vision of the Interna... more The Paralympic Games is celebrated in the mainstream media in line with the vision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) 'To enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world.' In this paper we explore the degree to which the flagship of parasport has acted as a catalyst for an enhanced social and cultural understanding of disabled embodiments. Drawing upon a Foucauldian conceptualisation of biopower in connection with Harraway's articulation of the cyborg, we highlight how hybrid bodies inevitably fail to promote embodied difference because they constitute, in and of themselves, a product of "normalizing" technology. In light of critiques such as that of the sporting supercrip, we argue that the heroic glorification of Paralympic cyborgs further amplifies the inadequacy of non-cyborg disabled bodies, whose impairments cannot be "compensated for" by movement technologies. Ultimately, this paper is a call to reflect upon how parasport culture can enhance its ability to deliver the empowerment ideal encapsulated within its vision.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 9, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Oct 6, 2022
Movement & Sport Sciences, 2017
Since the turn of the century, the Paralympic movement has gained a high public profile. We will ... more Since the turn of the century, the Paralympic movement has gained a high public profile. We will argue that this new high profile is a direct result of the focus of media attention upon new technologies of prosthetic medicine that have helped to create a legion of cyborg bodies that is manifest in the image of the contemporary sporting supercrip. This paper highlights the development of a technocentric ideology that has been embraced within the Paralympic movement. In embracing this ideology, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) began to celebrate the cyborgification of Paralympic bodies. Ultimately, this paper questions whether the advances in technology are actually empowering all disabled athletes or simply those who have the potential to be cyborgs.
Sport in Society, Sep 2, 2016
In this paper we highlight the need to explore the excessive significance given to the Paralympic... more In this paper we highlight the need to explore the excessive significance given to the Paralympic Games as a vehicle for the encouragement of participation of people with a disability within sport. The media spectacle around the games that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has worked tirelessly to develop has become, for policy makers and the public alike, a sufficient outlet for disability sport provision. We argue that the honourable goals of the IPC articulated through the ethos of Paralympism have been assumed to be valid for all people with a disability, yet in terms of widening participation, their utility is limited, as the Paralympics themselves are exclusionary. This paper first illuminates the relationship between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the IPC before we turn our attention to the ethos of Paralympism. Highlighting the necessity for 'sport for all' we show how a human rights lens, aided by a capabilities approach can facilitate better ways to educate the public about the need for equality of access to sporting participation opportunities.
Sociology of Sport Journal, Sep 1, 2021
In the UK, significant changes have occurred in the Paralympic media production environment and s... more In the UK, significant changes have occurred in the Paralympic media production environment and style of Paralympic broadcasting. Given the generative nature of media texts on cultural representation, we explore the circulation of disability narratives in contemporary Paralympic media coverage. Drawing on an integrated dataset that brings together textual analysis and audience perceptions, we highlight the presence of three disability narratives, termed: Extraordinary normalcy, ableist rehabilitation, and sporting ablenationalism. We unpack the ways these three narratives differ from the widely and commonly used 'supercrip' critique and discuss the implications of these narratives, and the wider cultural discourses and dialogue they generate, in terms of inclusion/exclusion and progressive social change.
Using a Capabilities Approach within APA Practice By Carla F. Silva and P. David Howe (Loughboro... more Using a Capabilities Approach within APA Practice
By Carla F. Silva and P. David Howe (Loughborough University)
This paper explores the importance of grounding adapted physical activity (APA) in an ethical framework which highlights the need of the disability industry to pay heed to issues of social justice. Initially the paper explores the published discourses (statements and visions) related both to current research and practitioner organisations associated with APA. In doing so the paper highlights a void of critical reflection upon ethical issues within APA contexts. Because social oppression and deprivation are still associated with disability, empowerment and self-determination have been emphasized as priority goals within disability sport and APA. These concepts are often attached to specific visions of the world that may not always conform to the values of the person that is supposed to be “empowered”. The important question is not only if people with impairments are engaging in sport and physical activity, but whether they are being offered freedom to choose what is valuable and appropriate for them. Freedom to choose implies social respect for diversity of values. The opportunities offered for impaired individuals must reflect a pluralistic view of the world where difference is not treated as abnormal or inferior. Using a capabilities approach that has been successfully implemented in discussions of social justice and development drawing upon both Sen’s The Idea of justice (2009) and Nussbaum’s Frontiers of justice, disability, nationality, species membership (2006) we suggest practical applications of their ethical reasoning for APA practitioner. It is paramount to realise the importance of individual rights and freedoms in the development of APA programmes that should be designed in conjunction with impaired communities while acknowledging the heterogeneous nature of these population.