Interconnection, Participation and Belonging among Learning Disability Communities

People with learning disabilities (hereafter PWLD) are a marginalised group in the UK. This PhD will focus on social relations within learning disability networks, which has been identified as an area in particular need of further study (Power, Hall et al. 2021). My thesis will engage with the exclusion/inclusion experienced by PWLD, by foregrounding their active roles in co-creating their communities.

Government policy on the inclusion of PWLD has been criticised as an attempt to 'normalise' people, through expectations based on hard outcomes, such as employability and independent living (Cameron 2005; Hall 2010; Cushing 2015). Despite inclusion policies, many PWLD live in a 'parallel world', in proximity to but not sharing the communities of non-disabled people (Desjardins 2000). In the UK, there are a range of learning disability communities created by: training and day centres, shared living, self-advocacy groups, friendship and support groups. In local areas, members move between these communities.

My research will fulfil the imperative for expansive, particular and responsive conceptions of inclusion. Pamela Cushing argues there is need for policy and research that is more 'respectful of [PWLD's] diverse needs and preferences' (2015: 83). As such, the research will provide an original contribution to the field through exploration of how PWLD themselves enact, experience and conceive 'meaningful inclusion' (Oliver and Barnes 2010). In the study members will be viewed as community practitioners - and their networks as a product of their practices and associated values.

I will trace formal and informal learning disability networks in the UK. There will be a qualitative, multimethod approach, involving ethnography, workshops and interviews. The research will be designed to respond to the communication needs of people with minor through to profound learning disabilities. Close attention will be paid to ways in which PWLD traverse and co-create their communities. The thesis will primarily consider to what extent and how these learning disability networks are produced by their community members' particular yet intersecting modes of participation and belonging. A speculative element of the project will invite PWLD to wonder what their communities could become and how broader society could adopt aspects of their practice.

The thesis will contribute to the field of learning disability social research, with the potential of influencing learning disability communities, social sector practice and government policy. In particular, it will contribute to: a) understanding learning disability networks; b) the centring of PWLD as community practitioners; c) understanding how PWLD enact, experience and conceive 'meaningful inclusion' and d) conducting participatory research with people with minor through to profound learning disabilities.