Radical Analysis of the Role of the Human Service Landscape in the Absence and Encapsulation of Intellectual Disability

Abstract

The problematic explored is the inability of people engaged in understanding oppression to see the oppression of people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). To explore this problematic, the human service landscape (HSL) for people with ID in BC was described. A framework for analysis was developed using Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) concept of ‘common sense’ and Giorgio Agamben’s (1998) concept of the double exception. The pieces of theory were taken up because they identify and describe oppression, in particular invisible oppression. The description of the HSL for people with ID in BC revealed that specialized services exist before birth and persist after death. Rough estimates of people using the HSL suggest that the majority of children with ID interact with the human service landscape. Findings from the analysis, using the framework described, suggest that the nature of the human service landscape influences social relations and normalizes the oppression of people with ID.