THE BODY: A PRODUCTION OF HIS ENVIRONNEMENT. ESCAPING FROM THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN BIOLOGICAL MODEL/SOCIAL MODEL OF DISABILITY, BY USING SOCIOLOGY OF THE BODY

Abstract

This article is based on a critical discussion of medical and social models of disability and their theoretical
opposition. The fact that the body is not taken into account in these analyzes will be asked. Many authors and
theoretical paradigms wonder why only considering body or at the opposite evacuate the body of scientific
debates on disability. Are these two positions really sustainable? Scientific ways have been found in systemic
models (CIF, PPH). But an answer founded on sociology of the body has not really been investigated. That’s
why, this article presents in a second time a summary of an explanation of disability based on sociology of the
body, which avoids a double biological and social reductionism. Based on a long ethnographic survey in
hospitals, these theoretical results highlight the inextricable intertwining of biological and social factors in the
social production of the body, as the disabled body. The conclusion problematize new research horizons.