Disability in Ghana. A Foucauldian discourse analysis examining values and the construction of the subject in legal documents
(2019) UTVK03 20191Sociology
- Abstract
- Across the globe, persons with disabilities do not enjoy equitable access to social, economic, and human capital compared to their non-disabled counterparts, and are politically, economically and culturally disenfranchised. Ghana ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2012 and is thereby obliged to amend their national disability laws, making them compatible with the convention. According to Ghana’s 2018 report of the CRPD, they are in the process of revising the national laws. While the inconsistencies of the international and national laws have been identified and researched, it appears that little, if no research, has been directed towards problematizing the power of language in the construction of... (More)
- Across the globe, persons with disabilities do not enjoy equitable access to social, economic, and human capital compared to their non-disabled counterparts, and are politically, economically and culturally disenfranchised. Ghana ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2012 and is thereby obliged to amend their national disability laws, making them compatible with the convention. According to Ghana’s 2018 report of the CRPD, they are in the process of revising the national laws. While the inconsistencies of the international and national laws have been identified and researched, it appears that little, if no research, has been directed towards problematizing the power of language in the construction of disabling discourse in the documents. This research aims to identify discourses and values in the chosen legal documents and further discuss how this contributes to the construction of the disabled subjects. To do so, a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was conducted. The theoretical framework that guided the study was based on a combination of Foucault’s ideas of power, including bio-power and normalizing power, as well as Crip theory, the conceptual models of disability and the construction of the subject. Results indicate that the three documents are built on different models of disability and contain different values and discourses, thus creating different subjects. Subsequently, the laws are not solely incompatible in their provisions, but additionally in their conceptualization, values, subjects, and discourses. Findings have implications on how to alter the national laws since an amendment to the legal framework without acknowledging these discursive elements may lead to confusion and a weak foundation for providing discrimination protection and equality rights. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8990952
- author
- Kinnman, Elin LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- UTVK03 20191
- year
- 2019
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Ghana, disability, Act 715, Act 846, CRPD, Foucault, Crip theory
- language
- English
- id
- 8990952
- date added to LUP
- 2019-08-07 14:09:01
- date last changed
- 2019-08-07 14:09:01
@misc{8990952,
abstract = {{Across the globe, persons with disabilities do not enjoy equitable access to social, economic, and human capital compared to their non-disabled counterparts, and are politically, economically and culturally disenfranchised. Ghana ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2012 and is thereby obliged to amend their national disability laws, making them compatible with the convention. According to Ghana’s 2018 report of the CRPD, they are in the process of revising the national laws. While the inconsistencies of the international and national laws have been identified and researched, it appears that little, if no research, has been directed towards problematizing the power of language in the construction of disabling discourse in the documents. This research aims to identify discourses and values in the chosen legal documents and further discuss how this contributes to the construction of the disabled subjects. To do so, a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was conducted. The theoretical framework that guided the study was based on a combination of Foucault’s ideas of power, including bio-power and normalizing power, as well as Crip theory, the conceptual models of disability and the construction of the subject. Results indicate that the three documents are built on different models of disability and contain different values and discourses, thus creating different subjects. Subsequently, the laws are not solely incompatible in their provisions, but additionally in their conceptualization, values, subjects, and discourses. Findings have implications on how to alter the national laws since an amendment to the legal framework without acknowledging these discursive elements may lead to confusion and a weak foundation for providing discrimination protection and equality rights.}},
author = {{Kinnman, Elin}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Disability in Ghana. A Foucauldian discourse analysis examining values and the construction of the subject in legal documents}},
year = {{2019}},
}