Questions of Competence Culture, Classification and Intellectual Disability [Paperback]

This book offers a conceptualisation of intellectual disability emphasising its cultural variability and social construction.This collection argues for a new conceptualisation of intellectual disability which stresses its cultural variability and social construction, and de-emphasises its medicalised, physiological nature. It is aimed at disability specialists in social anthropology, sociology, social policy, and psychology, and at the broader health/medical anthropology market. It is novel and radical in its treatment of intellectual disability not purely as an inherent property of individuals, but also as social phenomenon.This collection argues for a new conceptualisation of intellectual disability which stresses its cultural variability and social construction, and de-emphasises its medicalised, physiological nature. It is aimed at disability specialists in social anthropology, sociology, social policy, and psychology, and at the broader health/medical anthropology market. It is novel and radical in its treatment of intellectual disability not purely as an inherent property of individuals, but also as social phenomenon.This collection argues for a new conceptualization of intellectual disability that stresses its cultural variability and social construction, and deemphasizes its medicalized, physiological nature. It is aimed at disability specialists in social anthropology, sociology, social policy, and psychology, and at the broader health/medical anthropology audience. It is novel and radical in its treatment of intellectual disability not purely as an inherent property of individuals, but also as a social phenomenon.1. Culture, classification and (in)competence Richard Jenkins; 2. Mental disability in the United States: an interactionist perspective Michael V. Angrosino; 3. (In)competence in America in comparative perspective Patrick J. Devlieger; 4. Risk, resilience and competence: parents with learning difficulties and their children Tim Booth and Wendy Bols,