A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

There was not a set of definitions provided, as there are in both the medical model (through
the ICIDH definitions) and the social model (through the UPIAS and DPI definitions) so that
one could clearly state, in outlining the affirmative model, the meaning of the terms
impairment and disability. As far as I could read in the emerging literature and from
occasional telephone conversations with John Swain over the next few years, neither he nor
Sally French seemed to see a requirement to go further in clarifying their idea. I felt this was
likely to mean that a good idea would remain underdeveloped, and considered this
regrettable.
When the opportunity arose to apply for this PhD studentship I saw this as a chance to make
an intervention within the situation. I considered that an investigation which asked questions
of mainstream media representations of disability in the light of the affirmative model could
provide the focus for the further development of the model. My initial proposed research
title in my application to Queen Margaret University College in early 2006 was „Another
Way of Being: An Enquiry into the Development of an Affirmative Model as a Tool for
Analysis of the Social Construction of Disability‟. I stated my belief that „the affirmative
model holds promise as a tool for the analysis of the social construction of disability in the
media‟ and suggested that through a variety of methodological approaches – including
analysis of audience reaction to a variety of contemporary cultural texts and semi-structured
interviews with research participants on the meanings of texts, a defined and sharpened
affirmative model could be tested for its validity. I suggested that the establishment of the
affirmative model „as a tool for the analysis of disability representation may be of value, not
only to disabled people themselves in the struggle for social equality, but also more broadly
as an additional piece of apparatus within Cultural, Media and Disability Studies‟.
Turning the idea into a question
It became clear that, as far as carrying out research for a PhD was concerned, I would run
into problems if my intention was to start with the theory (the affirmative model) and,
without subjecting this to critical enquiry, to simply try to demonstrate its validity by
drawing observations supporting it from the empirical world. Certainly this would prohibit a
purely inductive approach, one which involves starting off with an examination of the social
world and developing a theory consistent with what is discovered (Esterberg, 2002:7).
Rather, it became clear that what I was seeking to do seemed to require a research process
involving deductive reasoning. Kristin Esterberg has described this type of research as
involving several stages, including:
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