Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-120).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-132).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Erskine Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-120).

German text / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This qualitative study was interested in what needed to be heard from people who have difficulty in putting one foot in front of the other. The research aimed to expose some of the dominant discourses around mobility difficulties through exploring the relationship discourse has with power and to look for less talked about ways of resisting some of the harmful effects of dominant discourses. It also explored how participants used their spiritual beliefs to establish meaning in their mobility difficulty experiences. The exploring was done by employing discourse analysis as analysing tool to search for dominant and alternate meanings found in experiences of mobility difficulties. Theoretical frameworks included practical theology, pastoral care, narrative practices, postmodern ideas, discourse, social construction theory, deconstruction, qualitative research and action research. The researcher's own experience of mobility difficulties has been used as background where she was both an observer and participant. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

The present research study is a deconstructive collaborative project situated within a postmodern paradigm. The research is premised on a notion that disability has been constructed by societies to reflect their values and norms. Despite various ancient and contemporary worldviews stabilising this normative paradigm, disability has remained a shifting and fleeting concept. For the most part, it has cast the disabled identity in more negative and alienating ways than positive. The Christian cultural context of Lesotho within which the study is situated has not done any better in terms of portraying people with disabilities. Instead, it has inherited the legacy of the ancient Mediterranean world and further re-read it in the light of the demands of contemporary society on the disabled identity. For instance, people with disabilities are still constructed as „sinners‟, „monsters‟, „add-ons‟, and pathological burdens who cannot by themselves survive the challenges of the contemporary world. Using the ideas of Foucault and Derrida, the study examines ways in which such a notion of disability is not only linguistically unstable but also founded on the binary opposites. The participatory nature of the study brings the important voices of people with disabilities to further destabilise the notion of disability and to deconstruct the dominant disability story. The immersion of this study within the participatory ethics and consciousness of Kotzé and Heshusius respectively, has led to an ambitious proposing of the participatory model of disability. The latter has leanings towards metaphors of the church as communion founded on and nurtured by the theologies of embrace, interdependence, healing and botho. It also resonates with the metaphor of the church as expounded in I Corinthians 12. As members of the body of Christ, no member can suffer without the rest of the body feeling the same. If one member of the body is disabled all the body is disabled. Alienating and marginalising others has no place in such a metaphor of church as communion, since by its own definition, all belong to and participate within it. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T16:17:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ENIO.pdf: 1159072 bytes, checksum: 9b7b4cb3f1e9366e69daf5f83d1ae0ef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-13 / The objective of this investigation is to analyze the relation between work and people with disabilities in Brazil, examining the quota policy which establishes the reservation of vacancies for people with disabilities in the formal work market and in the public service the direct or indirect administration, in the three spheres of government. In its legal and institutional aspects, the mentioned policy is anchored in the 1988´s Federal Constitution of Brazil and in other norms which constitute the guidelines, the programs, the objectives, the principles and the goals that compound the social policies which are implemented by the capitalist State. Starting from the presumption that work was and still is the originating and founding base of the social being, the present study intends to demonstrate that in any historical period of mankind primitive community, mode of production slave-based, feudal and capitalist the argument which better explains the exclusion of people with disabilities from the production processes relays on the following central idea: in the primitive communities, the fact that they could not produce their own material existence, through their own labor, and in the other modes of production, besides that, the fact that they could not produce the surplus. This gets more evident when made clear that the logics of the capitalist s production organization, directed to the maxim extraction of work, productivity and profit, does not sustain and does not need the workforce of those people. Even the small number of people who are working in the formal work market is employed only because of the pressure made by the disabled-rights movement and the existence of the legal regulation, which, despite its limits, in this case, plays an important role. The conclusion is that the law ends up producing an effect more ideological than practical, as it transmits to the society in general, and specifically to people with disabilities, an ideological argument by which the simple legal prescription grants the right to work as a concrete reality. This is revealed when, after more than 20 years from the promulgation of the 1988 s Federal Constitution, which granted the reservation of vacancies, the unemployment rate among people with disabilities in work age is still superior to 91%, while among people without disabilities the number floats around 10%. The right-to-work guaranty for people with disabilities represents the result of a process of fights marked by uncountable social-economical, political and cultural relations and mediations which express contradictories class interests, a fact that gets evident as the corporations and the capitalist State resist following the law statement. In spite of this conclusion, the disrespect for the law may be used by disabled-rights movement as an important political instrument with two objectives: to denounce the capital s system and the State, not only demanding the respect for the law, but also pointing the contradiction between what the law states and the concrete reality; and, through this political fight, to create a class conscience among people with disabilities engaged with the social mobilizations committed to the working class interests. / O objetivo desta investigação é analisar a relação trabalho e a pessoa com deficiência no Brasil, examinando a política de cotas que estabelece a reserva de vagas para as pessoas com deficiência no mercado de trabalho formal e no serviço público da administração direta ou indireta, nas três esferas de governo. Nos seus aspectos legais e institucionais, esta política está amparada na Constituição Federal brasileira de 1988 e em outras normas que constituem as diretrizes, os programas, os objetivos, os princípios e as metas que compõem as políticas sociais que são implementadas pelo Estado capitalista. Partindo do pressuposto de que o trabalho foi e continua sendo a base fundante e originária do ser social, o estudo pretende demonstrar que, em qualquer período histórico da humanidade comunidade primitiva, modo de produção escravista, feudal e capitalista, a justificativa que melhor dá conta de explicar a exclusão das pessoas com deficiência dos processos produtivos reside, justamente, na seguinte idéia central: nas comunidades primitivas, o fato de elas não conseguirem produzir a sua própria existência material por meio do seu próprio trabalho, e nos dos demais modos de produção, além do fato de não conseguirem produzir a sua própria existência, ocorre o fato de elas não conseguirem produzir o excedente. Isso fica mais evidente quando se constata que a lógica da organização da produção capitalista, voltada para a extração do máximo de trabalho, de produtividade e de lucro, não comporta e não necessita da força de trabalho dessas pessoas. Mesmo no caso do pequeno número das pessoas que estão trabalhando no mercado de trabalho formal, essas pessoas só são contratadas pela pressão do movimento das pessoas com deficiência e da existência da legislação que, apesar dos limites, neste caso, cumpre uma finalidade importante. A conclusão é a de que a legislação acaba produzindo mais um efeito ideológico do que propriamente prático, na medida em que transmite, para a sociedade em geral e para as próprias pessoas com deficiência, um argumento ideológico de que basta estar previsto em lei que o direito ao trabalho é uma realidade concreta. Isso acaba se revelando quando, após mais de 20 anos da promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988, que garantiu a reserva de vagas, o índice de desemprego entre as pessoas com deficiência em idade de trabalhar ainda ultrapassa os 91%, enquanto que, para as pessoas sem deficiência, gira em torno de 10%. A garantia do direito ao trabalho para as pessoas com deficiência representa o resultado de um processo de lutas marcado por inúmeras relações e mediações socioeconômicas, políticas e culturais que expressam interesses de classes contraditórios, fato que fica evidente na própria resistência dos empresários e do Estado capitalista no cumprimento da legislação. Não obstante esta constatação, o não-cumprimento da legislação pode ser utilizado pelo movimento das pessoas com deficiência como um importante instrumento político com dois objetivos: denunciar o sistema do capital e o Estado, não só exigindo o cumprimento da lei, como também apontando a contradição entre o que a lei preconiza e a realidade concreta; e, por meio desta luta política, formar consciência de classe nas pessoas com deficiência engajadas nas mobilizações sociais comprometidas com os interesses da classe trabalhadora.

This qualitative study was interested in what needed to be heard from people who have difficulty in putting one foot in front of the other. The research aimed to expose some of the dominant discourses around mobility difficulties through exploring the relationship discourse has with power and to look for less talked about ways of resisting some of the harmful effects of dominant discourses. It also explored how participants used their spiritual beliefs to establish meaning in their mobility difficulty experiences. The exploring was done by employing discourse analysis as analysing tool to search for dominant and alternate meanings found in experiences of mobility difficulties. Theoretical frameworks included practical theology, pastoral care, narrative practices, postmodern ideas, discourse, social construction theory, deconstruction, qualitative research and action research. The researcher's own experience of mobility difficulties has been used as background where she was both an observer and participant. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

The present research study is a deconstructive collaborative project situated within a postmodern paradigm. The research is premised on a notion that disability has been constructed by societies to reflect their values and norms. Despite various ancient and contemporary worldviews stabilising this normative paradigm, disability has remained a shifting and fleeting concept. For the most part, it has cast the disabled identity in more negative and alienating ways than positive. The Christian cultural context of Lesotho within which the study is situated has not done any better in terms of portraying people with disabilities. Instead, it has inherited the legacy of the ancient Mediterranean world and further re-read it in the light of the demands of contemporary society on the disabled identity. For instance, people with disabilities are still constructed as „sinners‟, „monsters‟, „add-ons‟, and pathological burdens who cannot by themselves survive the challenges of the contemporary world. Using the ideas of Foucault and Derrida, the study examines ways in which such a notion of disability is not only linguistically unstable but also founded on the binary opposites. The participatory nature of the study brings the important voices of people with disabilities to further destabilise the notion of disability and to deconstruct the dominant disability story. The immersion of this study within the participatory ethics and consciousness of Kotzé and Heshusius respectively, has led to an ambitious proposing of the participatory model of disability. The latter has leanings towards metaphors of the church as communion founded on and nurtured by the theologies of embrace, interdependence, healing and botho. It also resonates with the metaphor of the church as expounded in I Corinthians 12. As members of the body of Christ, no member can suffer without the rest of the body feeling the same. If one member of the body is disabled all the body is disabled. Alienating and marginalising others has no place in such a metaphor of church as communion, since by its own definition, all belong to and participate within it. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)