Facilitated Communication is a lightning rod of controversy in the world of special education. Its proponents claim that the technique of allowing persons with utism, Down Ssyndrome, and other pervasive developmental disorders to type their thoughts on a computer keyboard allows for the release of previously unknown intelligence and communicative abilities. Its detractors claim that it is a hoax whose validity is yet to be proven. With this book, Douglas Biklen and Donald Cardinal present an impressive collection of new studies providing evidence in support of facilitated communication, including a study carried out by a person who uses Facilitated Communication, Eugene Marcus, a young man with autism. Other contributors include: Darlene Hanson, John Wakeham, Shaswati Saha, Chris Kliewer, Stacey Baldac, Carl Parsons, Marjorie Olney, Mayer Shevin, Michael J. Salomon Weiss, Sheldon H. Wagner, and Rosemary Crossley.
In modern liberal democracies, rights-based judicial intervention in the policy choices of elected bodies has always been controversial. For some, such judicial intervention has trivialized and impoverished democratic politics. For others judges have contributed to a dynamic and healthy dialogue between the different spheres of the constitution, removed from pressures imposed on elected representatives to respond to popular sentiment. This book provides a critical evaluation of ongoing debates surrounding the judicial role in protecting fundamental human rights, focusing in particular on legislative/executive abridgment of a core freedom in western society - namely, liberty of expression. A range of types of expression are considered, including expression related to electoral processes, political expression in general and sexually explicit forms of expression.
This is a witty, erudite, and original synthesis, which in spite of its brevity gives density and connectedness to two centuries of American political thought.
One of the largest and most complex human services systems in Western nations has evolved to address the needs of people with developmental disabilities. In the U.S., for example, school budgets are stretched thin by legally mandated special education, and billions of Medicaid dollars annually are consumed by residential and professional services to this population. The temptation of a quick fix is strong. Many parents desperately seek the latest ideas and place pressure on program administrators, who often are not trained to think critically about the evidence base for intervention efforts. The problems of people with developmental disabilities have historically been targeted by a wide range of professionals who rely on clinical experience and intuition and do not submit their claims to the tests of scientific research. Professional entrepreneurs have energetically promoted their treatments to a public perhaps too trustful of those with credentials. Thus, families and their children are buffeted by reforms founded on belief and ideologically driven management. Services fluctuate with the currents of social movements and rapidly shifting philosophies of care as policymakers and providers strive for increased responsiveness and individualization. These forces affect not only where and how, but how well people are served. Too often, services are less effective than they could be, or worse, damaging to personal growth and quality of life. Many treatments are based on poorly understood or even disproven approaches. What approaches to early intervention, education, therapy, and remediation really help those with mental retardation and developmental disabilities improve their functioning and adaptation? And what approaches represent wastes of time, effort, and resources? This book brings together leading behavioral scientists and practitioners to focus light on the major controversies surrounding these questions. The authors review the origins, perpetuation, and resistance to scrutiny of questionable practices, and offer a clear rationale for appraising the quality of services. In an era of increasing accountability, no one with a professional stake in services to individuals with mental retardation and developmental disabilities can afford not to read this book.
Demonstrating that all notions of nature are inextricably entangled in different forms of social life, the text elaborates the many ways in which the apparently natural world has been produced from within particular social practices. These are analyzed in terms of different senses, different times and the production of distinct spaces, including the local, the national and the global. The authors emphasize the importance of cultural understandings of the physical world, highlighting the ways in which these have been routinely misunderstood by academic and policy discourses. They show that popular conceptions of, and attitudes to, nature are often contradictory and that there are no simple ways of prevailing upon people to `
Drawing on social science perspectives, Contested Categories presents a series of empirical studies that engage with the often shifting and day-to-day realities of life sciences categories. In doing so, it shows how such categories remain contested and dynamic, and that the boundaries they create are subject to negotiation as well as re-configuration and re-stabilization processes. Organized around the themes of biological substances and objects, personhood and the genomic body and the creation and dispersion of knowledge, each of the volume’s chapters reveals the elusive nature of fixity with regard to life science categories. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the social, legal, policy and ethical implications of science and technology and the life sciences.
In the sixth edition of Contested Knowledge, social theorist Steven Seidman presents the latest topics in social theory and addresses the current shift of 'universalist theorists' to networks of clustered debates. Responds to current issues, debates, and new social movements Reviews sociological theory from a contemporary perspective Reveals how the universal theorist and the era of rival schools has been replaced by networks of clustered debates that are relatively 'autonomous' and interdisciplinary Features updates and in-depth discussions of the newest clustered debates in social theory—intimacy, postcolonial nationalism, and the concept of 'the other' Challenges social scientists to renew their commitment to the important moral and political role social knowledge plays in public life
Facilitated communication is a cause of great controversy in the world of special education. Proponents claim that the technique of allowing persons with autism, Downs syndrome, and other pervasive developmental disorders to type their thoughts on a computer keyboard allows for the release of previously unknown intelligence and communicative abilities; detractors claim that it is a hoax whose validity is yet to be proven. With this book, Douglas Biklen and Donald Cardinal present a collection of studies providing evidence in support of facilitated communication, including a study carried out by a person who uses facilitated communication, Eugene Marcus, a young man with autism. Other contributors include: Darlene Hanson, John Wakeham, Shaswati Saha, Chris Kliewer, Stacey Baldac, Carl Parsons, Marjorie Olney, Mayer Shevin, Michael J. Salomon Weiss, Sheldon H. Wagner, and Rosemary Crossley.
This book represents the coming together of a number of internationally renowned scholars from science, philosophy, law and social science. Each author presents a distinctive and critical account of the current ethical, social and jurisprudential issues concerning stem cell science: together covering both its research beginnings, and the future translation into the clinical setting. Original to this volume is an emphasis on the inter-state implications of developments in stem cell science from the perspective of a truly global collaboration of leading authors. Academics and policy-makers will find it an invaluable contribution to the socio-political and ethical discourse of stem cell science. Contributions from a team of leading academic experts Covers a wide array of disciplines: with original contributions focusing on the technological, legal, social and ethical aspects of stem cell science A unique collection of international perspectives on developments in stem cell science Book jacket.
In "A Positive Approach to Autism, " Waterhouse investigates the autistic perception on the world, and defines what autism is in terms of causes, symptoms and behaviors, including a thorough explanation of current theories on brain structure. As well as describing medical treatments, Waterhouse examines how the more distressing symptoms of autism can be dealt with through diet, homeopathy, play therapy, and other alternative treatments. This is a practical and sympathetic book, which should be read by all those whose children are diagnosed with autism.
