In line with public policies, the French Association of Paralyzed People (APF) promotes the social participation of people with disabilities. This objective can be achieved both through participation in activities and participation in decision-making processes. This dual categorisation raises questions about the compatibility of logics of support and program objectives across these two facets of participation. Arising from work conducted in the context of a PhD dissertation, this article is based on document analysis and 49 indepth interviews with employees, volunteers, (...) members and users of the APF. The results highlight a tension, from the point of view of professional supports, between participation in activities and participation in decision-making. For the sake of swift and tangible results, professionals are encouraged to offer activities and services to achieve faster and more effective social participation. However, this places them in a complex, or even inextricable, position when it comes to enhancing users’ participation in decision-making. (shrink)

This comment of Valentine Gourinat’s research note “From the reconstituted body to the reconfigured body. For an ethical understanding of prosthetics in the age of techno-enchantment” addresses the specific issues of interdisciplinary research, particularly in the field of disability. The aim will be to examine the links between the academic space of knowledge and the researcher’s relationship to “his” object in research on disability.

Cet opus de cent pages, qui s’inscrit dans la collection dirigée par Ariel Suhamy et Nicolas Duvoux, “La vie des idées” des Presses universitaires de France, propose d’explorer différentes questions au travers desquelles le handicap est envisagé comme cause politique. C’est un ouvrage collectif qui regroupe une introduction, cinq chapitres, et une bibliographie anglophone et francophone commentée (États-Unis, Royaume-Uni, Canada, Australie, France) citant une quarantaine d’auteurs relevant de...