Mate, you're crippin' us out: biopolitics of the arts curriculum in Australia and the swinging identities of dis/abilities

Roche, Maree and Whitburn, Ben (2019) Mate, you're crippin' us out: biopolitics of the arts curriculum in Australia and the swinging identities of dis/abilities. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 13 (3), 345-360. (doi:10.3828/jlcds.2019.25).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The article explores arts curriculum in Australia as developed in the contexts of schooling, community organizations, and higher education f or people with disabilities and mental health concerns. Motivated to e xplore whether or not students provided access to modified arts curric ulum are engaging in education or receiving therapy, the aim is to add ress a dichotomy that is seemingly present in educational institutions , but extends well beyond the school gate and informs organizational r esponses to arts in the lives of people with disabilities. Resourced w ith the theoretical contributions of dis/ability studies for its conce rn for the biopolitics of disability, the authors weave personal exper iences through the discussion of participation in arts throughout thei r lives. The article concludes with a theoretical discussion of how ar ts provision in the Australian context might develop the social and po litical value of art in the lives of people with dis/abilities and for all, on the basis that its educative value is emphasized over its the rapeutic one.

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