Disability studies offers perhaps the most trenchant critique of "the hegemony of the normal"--that is, the reification and privileging of certain numerical indices (for example, IQ score; body mass index; weight and height; complete blood count; range of motion; brainwave frequencies; and other such measurements which are then regarded as "better" or "worse" than comparable numbers). While certainly accepting the importance of such measurements in designing treatments and strategies to improve the quality of life for people living in pain, disability studies seeks to balance this "experience-distant" emphasis on "the quantified life" with "experience-near" insights.
Knowledge, Identity, and Power
Social Scientific and Historical Perspectives
Course UID
003612.1
Course Subject
Catalog Number
370
Long title
Disability, Identity, and Power