A Sociohistorical Reading on the Position of Disabled Individuals in the Grip of Modernization and the Market Economy
Fatih KucurThe concept of being disabled has faced many definitions throughout history. In this regard, the concept of disability is based on the claim that being disabled is not a loss of ability but an issue of access. While this claim remains controversial, it has largely settled into the vernacular of the social sciences, however. How the use of this conceptual claim became widespread and its perspective in the social sciences was neither easy nor spontaneous. This study traces the conceptual transformation while discussing this process and reveals in a sociohistorical context how racial inequality based on the idea of Western superiority and the discourse on superior genes and people have caused repercussions regarding the issue of racial discrimination and the disabled. The study has adopted a descriptive approach in this regard and consulted the literature of this field, evaluating the process of looking at people and the body in general, as well as the disabled and society in a specific Western historical context from the sociohistorical perspective of being in the grip of modernization and the market economy. The study addresses the issue in this context by considering the transformation of the perspective toward humans and the disabled and the practical outcomes of this transformation. Thus, the study aims to contribute to understanding the adventure of the issue prior to the point currently reached and to make determinations about the founding mental background of the modern world.
Modernleşme ve Piyasa Kıskacında Engelli Bireyin Konumlanışına Dair Sosyo-Tarihsel Bir Okuma
Fatih KucurEngellilik kavramı tarihsel süreç içerisinde birçok tanımlamayla karşı karşıya kalmıştır. Bugün gelinen noktada ise engelli kavramı, engelliliğin bir yeti kaybı değil, bir erişim sorunu olduğu iddiasına dayanmaktadır. Bu iddia halen tartışmalıdır. Ancak büyük oranda sosyal bilimlerin diline yerleşmiş durumdadır. Bu kavramsal iddianın ve perspektifin sosyal bilimler tarafından kullanımının yaygınlaşma süreci hiç de kolay ve kendiliğinden olmamıştır. Bu çalışma bu süreci ele alırken kavramsal dönüşümün izini sürmektedir. Batılı olanın üstünlüğü fikrine dayalı ırksal eşitsizliğin, üstün gen ve üstün insan söyleminin, ırk ayrımcılığı ve engelliler konusunda nasıl bir yankılanmaya neden olduğunu, sosyo-tarihsel bağlamda ortaya koymaktadır. Bu noktada betimleyici bir yaklaşım benimsenmiş ve alan literatürüne başvurulmuştur. Genelde insana ve bedene, özel bağlamda ise engelli bireye ve topluma bakışın batı tarihi içerisindeki sürecini modernleşme ve piyasa kıskacında sosyo-tarihsel açıdan değerlendirmiştir. Bu bağlamda insana ve engelli bireye bakışın dönüşümü ve bunun pratik çıktıları ele alınarak mesele tartışılmıştır. Böylece meselenin bugün varılan noktadan evvelki serüveninin anlaşılmasına ve modern dünyanın kurucu zihinsel arka planına yönelik tespitler yapılmasına katkı sağlaması amaçlanmıştır.
The concept of disability is a relatively new concept due to having been evaluated from the framework in which it is currently handled. The point the concept has currently reached also reflects the current point of view. However, the view toward the disabled has passed through many phases throughout history and faced many conceptualizations in line with these perspectives. The proposed concept itself remains a matter of debate these days. When one considers the concept in terms of the social sciences, one sees the reflections of the production and productivity-oriented human perception that the economy-centered world that became evident after the 18𝑡 ℎ century has imposed on people. In general, an examination of the literature shows the studies to have mostly focused on the practices for the disabled and their life experiences. While the importance of these studies is undeniable, every practice obviously still has a philosophical background, and ignoring this background will make understanding the target of the practices that have been put forward difficult. As a matter of fact, seeing how the perspective transformation, as provided by the social model that has been put forward as a criticism of the medical model, in terms of the rights those with disabilities have gained has changed the field, and the practices will facilitate understanding what this article is stating. In this respect, presenting the issue through the dimension and philosophy of the social sciences will be shown to be very important in terms of understanding and analyzing the practical problems that currently stand before society. Understanding the destination of the concept of disability is only possible by revealing the concept’s past. Meanwhile, the historical transformation of the concept has not happened independent of the change and transformation that has occurred in Western thought and social order. In other words, the view toward the disabled is a part of the Western view of the person as a whole. Looking closely at Western thought in this context will show the main axis that constitutes the transformation of the individual view to have been shaped within the framework of economic usefulness in a thought process that goes from the divinely created individual and nature to an individual who is a part of nature formed as a result of coincidences. However, the definition of a human only as an economic instrument within the framework of homo-economicus has brought many problems together in the historical process.
Finally, placing this picture before the reader and discussing the possibility of a new world will perhaps be able to contribute to a better understanding of the problem. The main problem here is that a type of society in which economics is not fundamental is off the agenda. If the world can establish the explicability of a model of society where economics is not the main element, then socially integrating the structures that are referred to as disadvantaged people, women, children, and the elderly will become a little easier. This is because in a competitive system, one’s value is directly proportional to one’s productivity. One’s value is not self-evident but is related to the demand had for that individual. In particular, the perspective put forward in the educational processes that shape people needs to be criticized, because at the point that has been currently reached, even education has been and is being organized in a way that meets the needs of the market economy. Clearly a weakening is seen to be present in how the individual who has grown up in this education system perceives society. This weakness in perception reveals itself in the attempt to solve the problem along its own axis. Individuals who design themselves in line with the needs of the market economy are faced with a feeling of worthlessness when they fail, because modern individuals experience a career-centered construction process in a rush that has turned into a marathon, traumatically involving them in the competitive system without them even being aware and with a pathological anxiety. The career-centered individual has turned into a project of the self. Individuals who cannot adapt to the system feel helpless, because sociological reality surrounds them. Capital, which has already globalized and crosses borders, has also reached an uncontrollable level that threatens states. Capital will want to flow in terms of its structure and will see all the elements that are likely to prevent this as its enemy. This is because experience has shown that no transformation favoring people has taken place in the economy-centered world shaped by the Industrial Revolution, despite all the capital and the market economy.
