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

Critical social research, abstraction and deconstruction
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Examine how the concept has been used and then ask what the underlying
assumptions are that inform this usage and how it relates to the general area of
enquiry. The relationship between the abstract core concept and the area of enquiry
should be investigated at the level of general abstractions and in terms of concrete
empirical relations. Ask what appears to be going on at the abstract level and how
this is manifest in concrete situations (Harvey, 1990:30).
Conventional thought identifies impairment and disability in terms of loss, lack, restriction
of ability or as personal tragedy. Through an ongoing process of abstraction and
deconstruction I have reconstructed an alternative perspective. I have problematised the
ideology embedded in prevailing conceptualisations of disability. I have related my core
abstraction, disability, to the social totality to see if it reveals further the workings of the
totality. I have used empirical data gathered from the research participants to elaborate this
relationship. I have aimed to develop a new account of the social processes and structural
relations involved in the development of the identities of people with impairments in a
disabling society. In doing this, I have aimed to develop a deeper understanding of the
issues at hand which goes beyond surface appearances and relates the parts to the whole. It is
this deeper understanding I have used to clarify the affirmative model.
Critical social research and data collection
It is neither data collection devices nor analytic techniques that characterise critical social
research so much as the way that data are approached and the frameworks within which they
are analysed. Harvey indicates that a wide range of data collection tools are appropriate to
use, including semi-structured, unstructured and in-depth interviewing as well as
observation, both participant and non-participant (Harvey, 1990:196). It is, in fact, these
tools that I used for data collection.
Identifying participants
Because Swain and French had initially drawn inspiration for the affirmative model from the
values and work emerging from the disability arts movement (Swain and French, 2008:65), I
considered it important to involve at least a small number of participants in my research from
this movement. I therefore asked Charles and Lola if they would be interested in
participating. I had met Charles on several occasions since 2002 through delivering training