Intersectionality originated within the field of gender studies in 1989 and has received widespread popularity in recent years encompassing other fields of social sciences such as childhood, disability, human rights and race studies. Intersectionality theory illus-trates the connectedness of social constructs by proving that in order to understand one concept such as disability or childhood, it must be analysed in relation to the others.
Social constructs such as race, class, gender, sexuality, age and (dis)ablity intersect to create a person’s identity and life-world. All these social constructs have their own history, contradictions and challenges while also being dependent on time and place.
The cultural context represents the social space children live their lives. Nevertheless within any context, children’s lives have a diversity of challenges, vulnerabilities or privileges. Intersectionality is a framework for analysing the ways in which multiple identities and social group memberships interact and overlap to produce to shape a person’s life (McCall, 2005).
In order to research the lives of children in an inclusive way, researchers must the-oretically and methodologically account for diversity based on social factors that affect them (Ghavami, Katsiaficas, & Rogers, 2016). Intersectionality theory offers an infor-mative lens into the compound realities of children’s lives however, it is still not reg-ularly mentioned in relevant articles in this field (Alanen, 2016). Similarly, Keri Gray, the leader of a disability organisation, emphasises the importance of intersectionality in disability studies and advocacy. She criticises the common approach of identifying with a single identity, producing movements or conventions such as disability rights, children’s rights or women’s rights. She believes that in building a narrative of some-one’s life the intersections of all their multiple identities must be accounted for (Gray, 2020) .
Thorne (2004), calls for the necessity of theorising the concept of age. By utilising the intersectionality framework, researchers can go more in-depth in the analysis of
”age” in conjunction with other categories such as gender, class or race. In a research about children in the digital ages, the researcher gives an illustrative example of the practical use of intersectionality to understand children’s experience. He argues that a child with disabilities coming from a rich family experiences both privilege and op-pression due to belonging to different social categories. The family is able to provide assistance and professional care for their child, however, this family is still at a disad-vantage because it still faces systemic challenges of raising a child with disabilities. On the other hand, compared to a low-income family, it encounters fewer barriers. Despite the purely theoretical comparisons and description of a person’s life, this perspective is important because it sheds light on the different factors that influence a child’s life which are worthy of studying (Alper, Katz, & Clark, 2016).
Another researcher used intersectionality to study the experience of Nepali children during armed conflicts to counter the common homogenised view of the victims and their needs. There are also research in the field of disability exploring the diverse expe-riences of families who raise children with disabilities. Furthermore, Hodge argues that usually, the label of disability receives all the attention, leaving behind other aspects of children’s identities in their communities (Hodge, 2005).
In conclusion, the fundamental belief that these studies represent is that neither childhood nor disability can be studied as isolated phenomenons. There needs to be an account of how other social factors influence or are influenced by childhood and disability. Arguably, this research is precisely positioned in the intersection of age and disability, the former being a transitory but universal identity, the latter being a permanent but specific identity.
3.6 Chapter’s Summary
Childhood studies is a new research paradigm that changed the way children were conceptualised in research, by positioning them as participants rather than subjects.
Children are seen as active members of society with an important voice in the research environment and society at large. There are three main perspectives in childhood studies, two of which were most important for this research. Social construcionism views childhood as a contraction which is dependant on many social factors such as culture, geography, politics and economy. Whereas, the actor-oriented approach is concerned with research child agency and the various ways it is acknowledged and enacted in society.
Disability studies, on the other hand, researches and theorises the constructions of disability in research and society. The main models of disability examined in this chapter are the medical model, the social model, the bio-psycho-social model and the cultural model.
Disabled children’s childhood studies is an intersection between childhood and dis-ability studies that researches the lives of disabled children in different contexts and
cultures. Intersectionality is a crucial theoretical standpoint for this research because it provides an interesting lense to analyse the relationships between different social factors such as age, disability, cultural background, economic status, etc.
Methodology
4.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines the methodological approach followed to conduct participatory and ethical research with children with disabilities. Firstly, it discusses the concep-tual basis of the methodology which is a combination of methods and principles of ethnographic and participatory research inspired by the Mosaic Approach. Secondly, the process of conducting fieldwork is described starting from the fieldwork site, field entry and reflections on positionality and reflexivity. Thirdly, the methods and tools used to explore the research questions are briefly explained and evaluated. The last section explores the ethical principles of inclusive and participatory research, focusing on informed consent, confidentiality and safety principles