Crafting Blindness: Its Organizational Construction in a First Grade School

Giampietro Gobo

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.4.1.05

Authors

Giampietro Gobo University of Milan, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.4.1.05

Keywords:

Blindness, Social construction, Disability studies, Organization, Grounded theory, Ethnomethodology, Ethnography, Ergonomics

Abstract

This article is based on a case study conducted in an Italian primary school where the interactions between a sightless girl (named Jasmine, aged 8) and her classmates were extensively observed. The initial aim was to understand and describe the problems encountered by the sightless pupil, who acted in a social, organizational and physical environment which was not designed for handicapped people. However, other theoretical issues emerged during the research. The main finding was that sightlessness seems socially and organizationally constructed before it becomes a biological/physical handicap. The organizational processes through which the blindness is slowly and routinely constructed were extensively described.

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Author Biography

Giampietro Gobo, University of Milan, Italy

Giampietro Gobo (PhD) is Associate Professor of Methodology of Social Research at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Milan. He teaches also Ethnography, and Evaluation Methods. He co-edited (with C. Seale, J.F. Gubrium and D. Silverman) Qualitative Research Practice, Sage (2004). His last textbook is Doing Ethnography, Sage (2008). His current research interests are dealing with ‘workplace studies’ and CSCW (computersupported cooperative work). Currently he is conducting ethnographic and discourse analysis studies in call centre, mainly in Italian Medic Emergency Dispatch Centres.

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