Theorising Normalcy Conference 2013

Walking the Community Line

Liz Ellis: PhD candidate at the Open University, Faculty of Health and Social CareMilton KeynesUK

elizabeth.ellis@open.ac.uk

Introduction to the research

• Exploring the effect of rural environments on the lives of people with learning difficulties

• Inclusive methods• Fieldwork started May 2013• Fieldwork to end late October• Currently doing preliminary analysis

Specific research questions are:

• What is it like for people with learning difficulties living in rural spaces in England?

• What barriers are there to inclusion for people with learning difficulties in rural spaces?

• How do people with learning difficulties successfully overcome these barriers?

• What practices support or hinder inclusion for people with learning difficulties in a rural context?

Inclusive research project theme:People around us

• Who do people with LD see regularly?

• Where do people with LD see people?

• What barriers exist to social interaction?

• How have things changed in last 20, 15, 10, 5 years?

Using mobile methods (Emmel & Clark, 2009; Ledger, 2012; Trell & van Hoven, 2010)

Early outcomes• Importance of paid work• Social visibility• Reportage and gossip• Natural supports (Dumbleton 2013)

• Belonging (Cohen 1986 Willmott & Young 1960)

Paid workPercentage of people with learning difficulties in

some form of paid employment

Cornwall England

3.16%

(as of 2010: Brigham & Cohen, 2011 )

7.1%

(2011/2012: Emerson et al., 2012 )

Importance of work“I miss the fun of working with the guys” Matthew on his old job, Trip 2“ I like my job, it’s interesting and it helps people” Kate, Trip 3 analysis“I’m struggling a bit [since being made redundant] but I’ve got my savings” Dave, Trip 3“Work has given me life!” Luke , Trip 3 analysis

Seeing and being seen

Belonging

… well I’m a friend in the community. I go out, I see my friends every day and they see me. I see them out and about, I say hello to them, they see me out and about, they say hello to me…Mark, Trip 2 analysis

Caterham Asylum, Surrey

Cracks in the rural idyll

... I’ve got lots of good friends around here but sometimes I feel ... I don’t know what the word is... um ... it’s not isolated ... sometimes I think I might feel fed up because I’ve been on me own all the time ... Matthew trip 2 analysis

The rural idyll conceals poverty...the poor unwittingly conspire with the more affluent to hide their poverty by denying its existence. Those values which are at the heart of the rural idyll result in the poor tolerating their material deprivation because of the priority given to those symbols of the rural idyll: the family, the work ethic and good health. And when that material deprivation becomes so chronic by the standard of the area that it has to be recognised by the poor themselves, shame forces secrecy and the management of that poverty within the smallest possible framework...[At the same time] newcomers do not want to see poverty because it is anathema to the rural idyll which they are seeking to preserve. Fabes et al (1993 cited in Shucksmith, 2000 :15)

Doing ‘being ordinary’ and rubbing ‘the normals’ up the wrong way

I can get on with anybody like that cause ... we’re all the same kind of people... we’ve got our rights um.. from one person to another person that we’re not perfect in the world um ... nobody can take your rights away from youMatthew Trip 2 analysis

Conclusions, questions and suggestions

What IS normal?

References • Brigham, P., & Cohen, R. (2011). Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for People with Learning Disabilities 2011.• Cornwall County Council. (2013). Cornwall’s Economy at a Glance (pp. 1–9).• Curtis, S. (2010). Space, Place and Mental Health (p. 288). Ashgate.• Dumbleton, S. (2013) Personal email. • Edgerton, R. B. (1993). The Cloak of Competence (p. 276). University of California Press.• Emerson, E., Hatton, C., Robertson, J., Baines, S., Christie, A., & Glover, G. (2012). People with

Learning Disabilities in England 2012. Improving Health and Lives: Learning Disabilities Observatory.• Emmel, N., & Clark, A. (2009). The Methods Used in Connected Lives: Investigating networks, neighbourhoods and communities.

• Garcia, C. M., Eisenberg, M. E., Frerich, E. a, Lechner, K. E., & Lust, K. (2012). Conducting go-along interviews to understand context and promote health. Qualitative health research, 22(10), 1395–403. doi:10.1177/1049732312452936

• Goffman, E. (1990). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (p. 176). Penguin. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stigma-Notes-Management-Spoiled-Identity/dp/0140124756

• Greenstein, A. (2013). Today’s learning objective is to have a party: playing research with students in a secondary school special needs unit. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs.

• Ledger, S. J. (2012). Staying local: support for people with learning difficulties from inner London 1971-2007. Open University.

• Moor, C., & Leach, M. (2011). The Rural Big Society.• Rapley, M., Kiernan, P., & Antaki, C. (1998). Invisible to Themselves or Negotiating Identity? The Interactional Management of “Being Intellectually Disabled.” Disability & Society, 13(5), 37–41.

• Sacks, H. (1995). Lectures on Conversation Volume II (Vol. I). Blackwell Publishing.• Shucksmith, M. (2000). Exclusive countryside? Social inclusion and regeneration in rural areas. York.• Smith, N., Davis, A., & Hirsch, D. (2010). A minimum income standard for rural households. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

• Tonnies, F. (1887). Community and Society. New York: Dover Publications.• Trell, E., & van Hoven, B. (2010). Making sense of place: exploring creative and (inter) active research methods with young people Making sense of place. FENNIA, 188(1).

• Walmsley, J., & Johnson, K. (2003). Inclusive Research with People with Learning Disabilities: Past, Present and Futures. Jessica Kingsley.