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19 Critical Soc. Pol'y 5 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/critsplcy19 and id is 1 raw text is: U KIRSTEN STALKER University of Stirling U STEPHEN BARON, SHEILA RIDDELL & HEATHER WILKINSON University of Glasgow Models of disability: the relationship between theory and practice in non-statutory organizations Abstract Drawing on a study exploring the meaning of the 'learning society' for adults with learning difficulties, this article examines the relationship between theory and practice in a number of voluntary and user organiz- ations active in the learning disability field. It begins by outlining the ethos of normalization and the social model of disability. Nine out of 10 organizations taking part in the study explicitly or implicitly identified the social model as the main framework for their activities. However, sig- nificant inconsistencies in agencies' accounts are identified at theoretical, policy and practice levels. A number of possible explanations for these findings are examined. Introduction That practice should be closely informed by theory is a commonplace assumption in the 'caring professions'. Social work, however, has been criticized for its relative isolation from theory, or for its tendency towards eclecticism, and the absence of a wider theoretical framework in which to order and make sense of it all (Davies, 1991). In relation to people with learning difficulties, it has recently been argued that a theoretical impasse has been reached in contemporary social services, the field being dominated by orthodoxy rather than plu- rality of thought (Simpson, 1995). The 'orthodoxy' identified is that of normalization (outlined later): Simpson states that 'medical and insti- Copyright@ 1999 CriticalSocialPoicy58 0261-0183(199902)19:1 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol. 19(1): 5-29: 006105. 5

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