Date of Award
8-2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
Sociology
Department
Sociology
Major Professor
Baxter, Vern
Second Advisor
Allen, David
Third Advisor
Mann, Susan
Abstract
This is a theoretical and exploratory study of the social construction of the lived experience I am calling "ableness." Through the repetition of behaviors and practices performed by able-bodied people, the representation of the able body has come to appear natural and unconsciously taken for granted, as they do not have to think about their bodies in interaction with everyday objects. I argue that this able-bodied solipsism is heightened in advanced industrial societies where discourses and practices created by Human-Factors Engineering compile knowledge based on the assumption that the able body is the norm. This knowledge is then employed in the fabrication of everyday items. Through an examination of theoretical perspectives on impaired bodies, a history of human-factors engineering, and an ethnography of how able bodies interact with their everyday surroundings, I intend to uncover the assumptions underlying the social construction of "ableness" and able-bodied solipsism.
Recommended Citation
Kessinger, Richard III, "The Solipsism of Daily Experience and the Unequal Body: The Social Construction of Ableness" (2008). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 844.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/844
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.