Abstract
In this chapter I focus on the impact of these larger issues on what at first blush may seem a straightforward task – building research capacity for disabled people in lower-income contexts, drawing on my own work in this field in southern Africa. I begin by locating the politics of disability within broader debates in identity politics and the politics of exclusion. I then examine the way in which criteria set for disability research may be influenced by disability politics in ways that are not always helpful. I then discuss an example of research capacity building as a way of building a case for a broader discussion of knowledge management issues in disability work in lower-income contexts. The brief conclusion makes some recommendations for further work.
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Notes
- 1.
Shakespeare’s particular engagement with the social model of disability is not a central issue for this chapter, but his frank appraisal of what he sees as both good and bad in disability politics and research certainly is.
- 2.
The very useful “TOOLS TOGETHER NOW! 100 participatory tools to mobilize communities for HIV/AIDS” put together by the Aids Alliance and downloadable for free from www.aidsalliance.org, for example, is a treasure-trove of participatory techniques useful for any training and not just in the AIDS field. Many of the wonderful techniques included in this manual depend heavily on visual materials.
- 3.
We did in fact reveal to participants that we had constructed a bogus response and we did have a discussion about how researchers may report on data where there are outliers, but this discussion is not germane to the present argument.
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Swartz, L. (2009). Building Disability Research Capacity in Low-Income Contexts: Possibilities and Challenges. In: Maclachlan, M., Swartz, L. (eds) Disability & International Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-93840-0_6
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