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This open access edited volume explores physical disability and sexuality in South Africa, drawing on past studies, new research conducted by the editors, and first-person narratives from people with physical disabilities in the country. Sexuality has long been a site of oppression and discrimination for people with disabilities based on myths and misconceptions, and this book explores how these play out for people with physical disabilities in the South African setting. One myth with which the book is centrally concerned, is that people with disabilities are unable to have sex, or are seen as lacking sexuality by society at large. Societal understandings of masculinity, femininity, bodies a...
The sexual lives of people with disabilities are rarely discussed. It is as if, because someone has a biological or psychological impairment, they do not exist as a sexual being. As such, many people with disabilities feel marginalised and powerless not only in their day-to-day lives, but also in their ability to form sexual relationships. A range of health issues are raised as a result. Illustrated by research drawn from a range of international contexts, Disability and Sexual Health: A Critical Exploration of Key Issuesis the first to examine this important but seldom acknowledged issue. Beginning with an understanding of how both disability and sexuality are socially defined phenomena, th...
What is the link, if any, between race and disease? How did the term baster as ‘mixed race’ come to be mistranslated from ‘incest’ in the Hebrew Bible? What are the roots of racial thinking in South African universities? How does music fall on the ear of black and white listeners? Are new developments in genetics simply a backdoor for the return of eugenics? For the first time, leading scholars in South Africa from different disciplines take on some of these difficult questions about race, science and society in the aftermath of apartheid. This book offers an important foundation for students pursuing a broader education than what a typical degree provides, and a must-read resource for every citizen concerned about the lingering effects of race and racism in South Africa and other parts of the world.
What do we owe our future children? How do advances in biomedical science bear on these obligations? How do capitalist incentives distort their execution? Advances in biotechnologies for human enhancement and designer babies appear to offer us new hope to control the fragility of human living. Some philosophers have argued that we have a moral imperative to use them, especially to eliminate disabilities. Elyse Purcell offers an opposing view, one guided by existential insights and Marxist reflections. Engineering Perfection: Solidarity, Disability, and Well-being explores the effect global capitalism may have on the selection of traits for our future children and how the commercialization of...
It is common knowledge that HIV is widespread in Malawi as it is in many other countries of Southern Africa. It is also a well-known fact that women suffer most and frequently are blamed the most. Many attempts are being made to address the pandemic and reduce the suffering, and often women are the focus. This book differs in that it looks at the other side, men. It contends that men have to play a major role in the fight, not only by changing behaviour but also by understanding concepts of masculinity and that women may also profit from that.
This book is about being disabled and being poor and the social, cultural and political processes that link these two aspects of living in what has been characterised as a "vicious circle" (Yeo & Moore 2003). It is also about the strengths that people show when living with disability and being poor. How they try to overcome their problems and making the best out of what little they have. This book will appeal to academics, postgraduates and policymakers in disability studies, development studies, poverty and social exclusion
This book examines violence against women in Africa and criminal justice from the perspective of African scholars, practitioners and experts. As a global and long-standing issue, violence against women is gaining public visibility across the African continent with some states announcing a national crisis warranting immediate redress. At the global level, the elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls forms a key part of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. Split across two volumes, these books present a comprehensive analysis of the latest research and theories, principles and practices of criminal justice systems, criminal justice accountabil...
This volume aims to critically engage with constructs and experiences of disabled sexualities through Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. In doing so, it is hoped that the questions raised, relfections, analyses and arguments will provide readers with a catalyst through which to (re)think disabled sexualities from the perspective of the Global South. What makes this edited volume unique is besides chapters from emerging academics and disability activists who either live or work in the Global South, it also includes personal contributions from disabled people across the Global South. This volume takes a broad perspective on disabled sexualities addressing such areas as gender, race, culture, colonialism, body image, sexual pleasure, sexuality education, sexual access, sexual and reproductive health services, queer sexualities, and sexual rights and justice. The volume will be of interest to international and national organisations for people with disabilities, gender and sexuality researchers, health professionals, social workers, academics and students at all higher education and training institutions interested in disability, gender queer and sexuality studies.
This book looks at disability as an evolving social phenomenon. Disability is created through the interaction between persons with impairments and their environment. Exploring these experiences of persons with disabilities and discussing universality and particularity in our understanding of assumed development and normalcy, it takes Finland, which has been chosen repeatedly as the happiest country in the world as its case- study. Using disability as a critical lens helps to demystify Finland that has the positive reputation of a Welfare State. By identifying different kinds of discrimination against persons with disabilities as well as successful examples of disability inclusion, it shows that when looking Finland from the perspective of persons with disabilities, inequality and poverty have been collective experiences of too many of them. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, social policy, social work, political science, health and well-being studies and Nordic studies more broadly.
Every society has its own definition of a normal and an abnormal human condition. For persons living with mental disorders, these concepts have a tremendous impact. This study investigates how the abnormal mind is culturally defined in Malaŵi, South-Eastern Africa. Based on anthropological techniques such as interviews, participant observation, and archive research, it explores the different social dimensions of mental disorder - e.g. its reflection in traditional dance rituals, in behavioural rules during pregnancy, or in the healing ministry of independent churches. It demonstrates how local explanations of mental disorder - be it witchcraft, an angry ancestor, or the will of God - determine the social acceptance of an affected person's condition. Recent processes of cultural change, however, strengthen the pluralism of Malaŵian religious landscape, opening the local debate to an ever wider range of interpretations.