Volume 2 - January 2010
The French Concept of "Handicap":
Political Metaphor and Rallying Point of Professional Protectionisms
| Abstract |
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It has already been widely established elsewhere, that diverse uses of the concept of “handicap” are linked to political, economic, and corporate stakes.
In this article, based on an historical analysis of the uses of this concept, I shall show that the evolution is not due to the pursuit of knowledge but with a normalizing process in mind, oriented towards a search for political consensus among diverse lobbies and professional groups.
The result is that, in scientific research, the use of this concept can only be discouraged, unless an operating definition based on unambiguous distinctions between impairments, dysfunctions and handicaps can be produced.
The elaboration of a conceptual operating structure and the abandoning of the compulsive search for a generic term are today a priority and an urgent task. Only this will make possible a precise analysis of the relations between the different types of phenomena concerned.
