Boy Interrupted - Biographical disruption during the transition to adulthood

The co-conditioning of dis/ability and gender: An intersectionality study of Powerchair Hockey

This paper aims at initiating scholars to consider dis/ability as a category of analysis when doing intersectionality in sociology of sport. First, it introduces a conceptual framework that allows researchers to engage with the issue of the body and its physical and cognitive functions, as well as to address how the ability-disability system intersects with various other salient systems of oppression and privilege. I call this concept the intersectional co-conditioning of dis/ability, whereby experiences of dis/ability are fundamentally conditioned by (and also condition in return) other systems of difference and inequality. The framework provides scholars with theoretical tools that will help them to investigate body-related issues while avoiding the pitfall of essentializing dis/abilities. Second, this work offers an application of the abovementioned conceptual framework, focusing on the co-conditioning of dis/ability and gender. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of Powerchair Hockey in Switzerland, I investigate different aspects of this sport practiced by people living with so-called "severe" physical dis/abilities. The results highlight the tensions, contradictions and paradoxes that both male and female players face as they (re)negotiate their positions within the matrix of domination. This application demonstrates the explanatory power of considering the intersectional co-conditioning of dis/ability.

Biographical accounts of the impact of fatigue in young people with sickle cell disease

Children and young people (CYP) with sickle cell disease (SCD) are a 'missing voice' in the debate on biography and sociology of chronic illness, meaning we know little about the social consequences of the illness for CYP. This paper examines the meaning of fatigue (a common symptom) for adolescents with SCD. Analysing 24 in-depth interviews with adolescents aged 12-17 years in Ghana, we draw on the distinction proposed by Bury (1988) between 'meanings as significance' and 'meanings as consequence' to examine biographical aspects of fatigue. We argue that concepts of 'biographical disruption' and 'normal illness' do not easily accommodate the experience of CYP with congenital chronic illnesses like SCD, as their sense of (un)disruption and normality/continuity is contextualised relative to normative expectations about what it is to be a young person. At biographical transition points, illness/symptoms present from birth may evolve, shift and become experienced as 'new', 'different', or 'non-normal'. They may become restrictive rather than continuous or disruptive. These experiences are influenced primarily by normative biographical expectations and the pursuit of identity affirmations. We propose that biographical restriction, biographical enactment, biographical abandonment and biographical reframing are more relevant concepts for understanding the experiences of CYP living with SCD.

Frailty as biographical disruption

Biographical disruption positions the onset of chronic illness as a major life disruption in which changes to body, self and resources occur (Sociology of Health & Illness, 4, 1982, 167-182). The concept has been used widely in medical sociology. It has also been subject to critique and development by numerous scholars. In this paper, we build on recent developments of the concept, particularly those taking a phenomenological approach, to argue that it can also help in understanding other disruptive health-related experiences across the life course, in this case the onset of frailty. We draw on the findings of 30 situated interviews with frail older people, relating their experiences of frailty to the concept of biographical disruption. We show that frailty shares many similarities with the experience of chronic illness. Using the lens of biographical disruption to understand frailty also offers insights relevant to recent debates around both concepts, and on the continued relevance of the idea of biographical disruption given changing experiences of health and illness, including the circumstances in which biographical disruption is more and less likely to be experienced. Finally, we reflect on the potentials and limitations of applying the concept to a health-related condition that cannot be categorised as a disease.