Changing disabling places

Abstract

This thesis documents, develops and demonstrates a novel form of praxis in relation to disability in Scottish Higher Education. 'Praxis', as I use the term in this thesis, refers to an ongoing, irreducible, collective process through which is enacted, in one and the same process: 'knowledgementing' (the construction and legitimation of knowledge claims); 'radical reflexivity' (the bringing to awareness and critical problematisation of interests served by what is thought, said and done by all relevant parties); and 'ideologically progressive social action' (the pursuit of emancipatory process and just outcomes and the contesting of'external and internal' institutional oppression). The meaning of praxis is explicated in this thesis and demonstrated in action with reference to disability in Scottish Higher Education. Particular attention is paid to explicating and demonstrating the conceptual unity of praxis and the interconnectivity in actuality of the practices, procedures and policies which disable in assemblages or apparatuses, as Foucault uses the terms. The interconnectivity of the praxis is, it is claimed, the key to unlocking the interconnectivity of the assemblages which produce and maintain disability in Scottish Higher Education. The thesis traces the connections between the various elements of the assemblage producing a novel account (and new knowledges) which, it is claimed, could only have been derived as a result of the praxis and which can also account for the knowledges presented in previous research into disability in British Higher Education, locating these studies as part of the disabling assemblage. The thesis concludes by drawing out wider implications of praxis for conventional research, for psychology and social science.