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      Philosophy of Disability, Conceptual Engineering, and the Nursing Home-Industrial-Complex in Canada

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            Abstract

            In this article, I indicate how the naturalized and individualized conception of disability that prevails in philosophy informs the indifference of philosophers to the predictable COVID-19 tragedy that has unfolded in nursing homes, supported living centers, psychiatric institutions, and other institutions in which elders and younger disabled people are placed. I maintain that, insofar as feminist and other discourses represent these institutions as sites of care and love, they enact structural gaslighting. I argue, therefore, that philosophers must engage in conceptual engineering with respect to how disability and these institutions are understood and represented. To substantiate my argument, I trace the sequence of catastrophic events that have occurred in nursing homes in Canada and in the Canadian province of Ontario in particular during the pandemic, tying these events to other past and current eugenic practices produced in the Canadian context. The crux of the article is that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into vivid relief the carceral character of nursing homes and other congregate settings in which elders and younger disabled people are confined.

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            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Journal
            10.2307/j50020082
            intecritdivestud
            International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies
            Pluto Journals
            2516-550X
            2516-5518
            1 June 2021
            : 4
            : 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/intecritdivestud.4.issue-1 )
            : 10-33
            Affiliations
            BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, Hamilton, Canada
            Article
            intecritdivestud.4.1.0010
            10.13169/intecritdivestud.4.1.0010
            de06eded-682d-4ef0-8e00-759c56ab8c04
            © 2021 International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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            Custom metadata
            eng

            Social & Behavioral Sciences
            structural gaslighting,philosophy of disability,nursing home-industrial-complex,conceptual engineering,carceral

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