Browsing by Person "Ballantyne, Elaine"

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A Vision for Occupational Therapy in the 21st Century: Outcomes from a Scottish Think Tank
(2014) Renton, Linda; Kantartzis, Sarah; McMillan, Ian R.; Hunter, Heather; Ballantyne, Elaine
Doing Mad Studies: A Participatory Action Research Project to explore the experiences and impacts of being part of a Mad People’s History and Identity course and the relationship between critical education, activism and emancipation
(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2019) Ballantyne, Elaine
Mad People’s History and Identity (MPHI) is a Mad Studies course delivered at Queen Margaret University (QMU). The course is a partnership including academics at QMU, Consultancy and Advocacy Promotion Service (CAPS), NHS Lothian and people with lived experience of mental health issues. LeFrançois (2016, p. v) provides a coherent definition of Mad Studies stating that “mad activist scholarship, a form of knowledge production or collective intellectual contribution that is embedded in Mad community interventions and actions.” MPHI is an exercise in critical pedagogy to facilitate “conscientisation” through the exploration of individual and collective experiences of madness, psychiatrisation and oppression. It aims to engage students in challenging dominant discourses, creating counter-knowledge and activist resistance to the Epistemic Injustice and oppression experienced by the mad community. This PAR research proposed to explore the experiences and impacts of being part of the course. Its main focus was on the exploration of the relationship between participation on the course and activism. Congruent with the philosophy of the course, this research was committed to privileging the experiences, knowledge and histories of the user/survivor/mad MPHI students. A PAR group of four students, two partners from CAPS and the author co-produced this research. Data collection involved the peer interviews of nine MPHI students. The actions of the research were the generation of a Photovoice exhibition and the production of a film. The research revealed that participation in the course had facilitated change in both mad and intersectional identities. It had given voice to experiences of distress, psychiatrisation and oppression. The collective experience had fostered support, solidarity and increased social capital. This included accessing new communities, occupations and engagement with social movements. The course had raised consciousness of personal and collective oppression resulting in agency and engagement with advocacy and activism. Key words: Mad People’s History, Mad Studies, Participatory Action Research, Activism.
Occupational Therapy and the Affirmative Model of Disability
(Sage, 2008) Ballantyne, Elaine; Muir, Andrew; Swain, J.
This authoritative collection of writings examines and challenges traditional notions of disability. Edited and written by leading experts in the field, it offers a multidisciplinary approach to disability studies, incorporating perspectives from a wide range of health and social care services, as well as a distinct and unique emphasis on the views, experiences, work and personal testimonies of disabled people themselves. The book is divided into three sections, each of which is prefaced by an editorial introduction which brings together the key themes and issues under discussion. Each section: Examines the dominant assumptions about disability and impairment and their historical and cultural contexts Documents the challenges to such presumptions generated by disabled people themselves Explores the implications of such challenges for professional policy and practice This ground-breaking book will be essential reading for those studying disability studies, social work, nursing, and allied health and social care at all levels. It will also be a thought-provoking and inspiring read for disabled people and activists, professionals and policy makers. John Swain is based in the School of Health, Community and Education Studies at Northumbria Univeristy. Sally French is based at the Open Univeristy. Previous publications include the co-edited Disabling Barriers, Enabling Environments, Second Edition (SAGE, 2004).
Public sociology and social movements: Incorporation or a war of position?
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2019-06-14) Scandrett, Eurig; Ballantyne, Elaine; Breeze, Maddie; Taylor, Yvette; Costa, Cristina
Activist academics have attempted to challenge neoliberalism in higher education through pedagogical and research engagement with social movements. This chapter draws on the experience of working with movements against violence against women; for environmental justice; and Mad studies. It makes use of Ettore Gelpi’s conception of Lifelong Education to analyse the practice of social movement engagement as a dialectical relation of knowledge exchange, which seeks to expose and transform social contradictions. However, such engagement also risks hegemonic incorporation of social movements by the neoliberal university. The authors argue that Gramsci’s concept of ‘war of position’ helps to discern such risks, and that such pedagogy can constitute a defence against neoliberal attacks on social movements, as well as providing opportunities to challenge neoliberal hegemony in the university.