Islands in the Mainstream: Creating Cultures of Disability to Control Young People (From Youth Subcultures: Theory, History and the Australian Experience, P 129-135, 1993, Rob White, ed. -- See NCJ-162536)

• NCJ Number: 162555
• Author(s): R Slee; S Cook
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

The position of young people in Australia who are considered disabled evokes particular concern; they are excluded from the mainstream because of perceived disabilities and also because of their youth.

Abstract

In order to manage the challenge facing the Australian government by an increasing number of marginalized youth, more young people are being categorized as disabled. As a defining social policy, "disability" is used to provide the opportunity for surveillance, regulation, and control. Hence, use and abuse of the term disability needs to be carefully reconsidered. Additionally, implications of competing theories of disability need to be identified in order to demonstrate some of the contradictions in current government policies and programs directed at young people who are considered to be disabled. Ways in which young people come to be seen as disabled are discussed, and an effort is made to illustrate the experience of disability. An attempt is also made to alert researchers and workers in the field of disability to enabling and disabling potentials of government policies. The authors conclude that the culture of disability is deeply entrenched and conveniently used to classify, regulate, and contain young people who are difficult to handle in a dysfunctional society. 38 references