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jp 5 ny

David Wästerfors

Professor

jp 5 ny

Doing Normalcy. Attractive interactions for teenage boys with disabilities

Author

  • David Wästerfors

Summary, in English

The contemporary expansion of diagnoses is a well-known phenomenon. What is rarely investigated, however, are people’s subtle ways of deconstructing medical stigmas in everyday interactions. This article, based on an ethnographic study of a recreational activity for teenage boys with diverse diagnoses and disabilities (for instance, Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, and cerebral pares), shows how a de-stigmatizing “normalcy” may be interactively and situationally maintained in the periphery of a society’s health care system. The studied activity takes place in a garage setting and is built around repair work on an old American car. The practical and mundane elements of this activity, analyzed thematically as “garage work”, “the jargon”, “doing nothing”, and “a coffee ritual”, proved to supply significant occasions for deconstructing stigmatized selves in undramatic ways.

Department/s

  • Sociology

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Publication/Series

International Journal of Sociological Research

Document type

Journal article

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • disability
  • diagnoses
  • stigma
  • sociology
  • interaction
  • normalcy
  • sociologi

Status

Inpress

Research group

  • Kriminal- och socialvetenskapligt nätverk