Hard Times Came Again No More? Processes of Role Formation in Disabled Leaders’ Working Life

• In Event: 158 - Section on Disability and Society Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Disability and Society Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01

Abstract

This paper links up with a comparative organizational ethnography dealing with challenges people with disabilities are confronted with in selected work situations in which they relatively recently gained major responsibilities in certain areas of their organization, without having been extensively trained for the respective new setting and role as leaders. Using examples from a broad spectrum of working life (e.g., sports organization of children and adults with intellectual disabilities; film museum with a blind tour guide; cooperatives on personal assistance in context of the Independent Living Movement in different regions of the world), the paper explores the impact of "hard times" in terms of the ways that individuals may or may not succeed as empowered agents despite various barriers. The research is being conducted at the intersections of Sociology of Organizations, Disability Studies and Social Movement Theory within the Social Sciences, aiming at bridging particular research accounts from those academic fields within the U.S. and Nordic countries of Europe. The paper draws from process data from different kinds of sources: semi-structured interviews; archived materials; and participant observation. Data collection took place in context of a research project that the author has carried out as Visiting Scholar at the Sociology Department of Emory University in Atlanta (financed by the Research Council of Norway).

Author

• Florian Kiuppis, Lillehammer University College