Centre for Teacher Education

Wenn wir forschen, beschäftigen wir uns oft mit den Überlegungen großer Denkerinnen und Denker. Uns interessiert besonders, wie „Macht“ funktioniert. Wir wollen mit euch ausprobieren, was Michel Foucault, Gayatri Spivak und Gilles Deleuze zu diesem Thema herausgefunden haben.

Aim: This paper focusses on preliminary findings from an inclusive research project currently conducted in Austria. The study aims to learn more about the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) who were forced to live in (total) institutions. Method: Using life history research, 41 interviews with 6 people with ID were conducted. Data are analyzed using situational analysis. Results: We identified “power” as one of the key factors within the collected biographies. This is particularly due to the fact that even the former inmates themselves started to believe they were worth less than others around them. To meet the need of finding explanations on a theoretical basis, Gramsci’s conception of hegemony and the “subaltern” was used. It suggests that dominating groups promote their own way of seeing the world, which in hegemonic discourses leads to those who are subordinated by it accepting it as common sense and natural. Conclusion: This paper will illustrate how complex theoretical ideas can be embedded to meet the needs of people with ID to learn more about their experiences in (total) institutions.

This paper focuses on first findings from a research project currently conducted in Austria. Applying life history research, the study aims to explore the experiences of people with learning difficulties who survived total institutions and deinstitutionalization further and adopts an approach which we (a team consisting of 6 people with learning difficulties and one PhD-student, the author of this paper) call “as inclusive as possible”.

In due course of the research process we considered it necessary to frame our activities and reflections with philosophical concepts dealing with power issues. This was particularly due to the fact that we repeatedly discussed the question why there was no one to listen to inmates of total institutions themselves, despite some of them trying to show some resistance. Simultaneously, we found that former inmates themselves even started to believe what they have been told: that they were less worth than others.

In order to understand these mechanisms, Gramsci’s conception of hegemony turned out to be beneficial. It is defined as a holistic combination of domination with intellectual and moral leadership and particularly useful when it comes to those people who are controlled and/or subordinated: Dominating groups promote their own way of seeing the world, which in hegemonic discourses leads to the fact that those who are subordinated by it accept it as common sense and natural.

This paper aims to identify people with learning difficulties (who survived total institutions) as part of the “subaltern”. Within this discourse, particular attention can be attached to the role of intellectuals, who are in the words of Gramsci : “the dominant group’s ‘deputies’ exercising the subaltern functions of social hegemony and political government. ” (Gramsci, 1999: 145).