tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7327718065135964598.post2456472330171268467..comments2023-08-10T15:02:51.259+01:00Comments on The Small Places: The new playing fieldLucy Serieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07820866715125284389noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7327718065135964598.post-25925868576314714352013-02-09T01:46:24.116+00:002013-02-09T01:46:24.116+00:00I tend to find discussions of relational autonomy ...I tend to find discussions of relational autonomy unhelpful for many of these reasons. To use a phrase that Fabian is fond of (albeit not in this context), relational autonomy tends to be a 'black box', which is often appealed to without much concern for precisely what's inside it. It's a placeholder not a solution. In practice, it's only as a corrective to highly individualistic conceptions of autonomy -- which there are plenty of independent reasons to be suspicious of -- that it seems to do much work. Everything hinges on the nature of the relations invoked; and these are hugely variable depending on which relational autonomist you're talking about.<br /><br />Sometimes I wonder whether it's better to refocus the discussion away from relational autonomy (the ways in which autonomy is constituted by relationships) and towards well-functioning relationships (in which promoting autonomy, narrowly understood, would be one important but not dominating desiderata). But that demotion of autonomy from a categorically-binding value might be my not-so-latent paternalistic side coming out.<br /><br />The wider issues about the boundaries between, or interpenetration of, care and control are super-interesting. Funding-permitting, I'd like to look at the relation of support and agency in the context of the CRPD, especially the problem of legal capacity when someone is relying on a seemingly wayward 'supporter'. The 'governmentality' dimensions-- how there is institutional power in having people believe they have decided for themselves, whether or not in a sufficiently material sense they have -- would be good to explore too.<br /><br />In all this, I very much share your worry that if we're not generating the necessary intellectual mulch, then all this well-intentioned rhetoric around support and shared decision-making might end being stunted, or even counterproductive when it comes to reintroducing other problems of power and control.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17635254057750236838noreply@blogger.com