Questions of Competence: Culture, Classification and Intellectual Disability

Abstract

(from the book) Examines the classification of people as competent and incompetent in the US, England, Wales, Greece, Greenland, Uganda, and Belize. The contributors, anthropologists, and sociologists, argue that it is time for a new understanding of intellectual disability. In contrast to medical and psychological models, a social model of intellectual disability emphasizes the cultural and individual variability of incompetence, the intimate relationship between cultural categories of competence and incompetence, and the role of social interaction and networks in its social construction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved)