Identity issues in proposing activities to persons with a learning disability
| Panel: | P76 - Displaying Social Identity and (Re)Positioning Oneself in Interaction |
| Author: | Walton, Chris |
| Author 2: | Charles Antaki |
| Author 3: | W M L Finlay |
| Abstract: | |
| In residential homes for people with learning difficulties, a routine way for staff members to structure residents' time is to propose outside activities (for example, a trip to town, a concert and so on). In an ethnographic and conversation-analytic study over six months in two residential homes, we identified one common way of proposing such activities which reveals a subtle but significant aspect of the staff's understanding of the residents' identities. Staff often introduced an activity not by mentioning its actual qualities (e.g. 'do you want to go and see a church concert with lots of singing?') but by associating it with a given individual (e.g. 'do you want to go to a concert with Bill?'). This association of activity plus name could be occasioned by residents' non-uptake, or rejection, of staff's first proposal. So it might be at least partly to help comprehension. But it also happened at the staff's first mention of the activity, when no 'repair' needed to be done. We argue that bolting a name onto the proposed activity does not just make things easier for the resident to understand. Equally, or more importantly perhaps, it mobilises the social side of the residents' choices. Identifying someone with whom the resident might share the experience of the activity, or who might feel let down if the resident didn't go, emphasises the resident's place in a social network. This practice favours the social aspect of the residents' choices over any other, and encourages the residents' conceptions of themselves as people with feelings who care about others, and who are, in turn, cared about. This seems positive. But it arguably produces a particular type of identity in interaction: that of someone whose orientation and value is primarily social, but whose appreciation of other aspects of life is limited. |
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