Disabled women on BC income support by Sally Agnes Kimpson Bachelor of Science in Nursing ...

395 Pages·2015·1.52 MB·English

Uncertain subjects: Disabled women on B.C. income support

by

Sally Agnes Kimpson
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Victoria, 1989
Master of Arts, University of Victoria, 1995

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in Interdisciplinary Studies

 Sally Agnes Kimpson, 2015
University of Victoria

All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by
photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author.
ii
Supervisory Committee

Uncertain subjects: Disabled women on B.C. income support

by

Sally Agnes Kimpson
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Victoria, 1989
Master of Arts, University of Victoria, 1995

Dr. Mary Ellen Purkis, Co-Supervisor
School of Nursing

Dr. Antoinette Oberg, Co-Supervisor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Dr. Carol McDonald, Departmental Member
School of Nursing

Dr. Katherine Teghtsoonian, Outside Member
Studies in Policy and Practice
iii
Abstract

Supervisory Committee
Dr. Mary Ellen Purkis, Co-Supervisor
School of Nursing

Dr. Antoinette Oberg, Co-Supervisor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Dr. Carol McDonald, Departmental Member
School of Nursing

Dr. Katherine Teghtsoonian, Outside Member
Studies in Policy and Practice

With an explicit focus on how power is enacted and what this produces in the everyday
lives of chronically ill women living on B.C. disability income support (BC Benefits),
this research is located at the contested juxtaposition of what I refer to as three fields of
possibility; feminism, poststructuralism and critical disability studies. Each of these fields
suggests methodological, empirical and interpretive readings that enable me to produce
different knowledge, differently, about disabled women’s lives. Using verbatim narrative
accounts from in-depth interviews focused on how each of four participants live their
lives, take care of themselves, and make sense of and respond to the government policy
and practices to which they are subject, reveals everyday, embodied practices of the self
that constitute their subjectivities as disabled women. Together, these accounts along
with critically interpretive reflections reveal/expose/make visible the lives of these
women in response to exercises of power in ways that unseat, unsettle and disrupt taken-
for-granted understandings of those who are disabled, female and poor.
Along with explicating power relations in the lives of disabled women and what these
produce, I also link these critically to their health, socio-economic well-being and
citizenship, while creating a disruptive reading that destabilizes common-sense notions
about disabled women securing B.C. provincial income support benefits. Thus my
research purposes and those of my disability activism are melded as these intersect within
the (often-contested) borders of poststructural and social justice terrain. Despite public
iv
claims by the B. C. government to foster the independence, participation in community
and citizenship of disabled people in B.C., the intersection of government policy and
practices and how they are read and taken up by the women, produce profound
uncertainty in their lives, such that these women become uncertain subjects. Living
poorly, they experience structural poverty, compromised well-being and “dis-citizenship”
(Devlin & Pothier, 2006), all inconvenient facts reflecting a marked disjuncture between
how government programs are publicly represented and their strategic effects.
v
Table of Contents

Supervisory
 Committee
  ii

Abstract
  iii

Table
 of
 Contents
  v

Acknowledgements
  vii

Dedication
  xi

I
 begin
 here
  1

What
 had
 I
 begun?
  8

Proceeding
 towards
 complexity:
 Weaving
 broad
 tapestries
  11

Locating
 in
 field(s)
 of
 possibilities:
 Poststructuralism,
 feminism,
 and
 disability
 studies
  15

(Fleshing
 out)
 women,
 bodies,
 disability
  21

Disabling
 the
 social
 model
  33

The
 subject(s)
 of
 bio-­power
  43

The
 conduct
 of
 (the)
 research
  52

Imagining
 and
 recruiting
 participants
  61

Why
 disabled
 women
 living
 with
 chronic
 illnesses?
  63

Navigating
 interpretive
 labyrinths,
 finding
 egress
  71

Impossible
 stories
  77

Applying
 for
 benefits
  80

Laying
 bare
 the
 disciplinary
 process
  101

Im/personal
 campaigns
  111

Translating
 difficulty,
 caring
 for
 self
  133

(Close)
 Encounters
 with
 Ministry
 workers,
 and
 Alternative
 Means
  155

Being
 caught:
 And
 a
 Faustian
 bargain?
  177

Limiting
 changes,
 juggling
 limits
  190

Palimpsest:
 From
 the
 ground
 up
 (v.
 4)
  200

No
 good
 subjects
 of
 resistance
  206

Work
 without
 choice,
 fear
 and
 distrust,
 dependency
  210

Be
 afraid,
 be
 very
 afraid
  213

Dependency:
 An
 unintended
 consequence
  217

Uncertain
 subjects
  224

Challenging
 Changes:
 The
 Disability
 Designation
 Review
  228

The
 unknown,
 known
  233

Advocacy
 and
 The
 Review:
 Strategizing
 in
 the
 dark
  241

(Mis)understanding
 The
 Review
  265

Strategizing
 (and)
 The
 Review
  290

Expediting
 The
 Review
  301

Pulling
 up
 short
 and
 thinking
  314
vi
Unsettling
 well-­being
  316

The
 un/certainty
 of
 poverty
  322

Poverty,
 revisited
  324

Disabled
 citizen/subjects
  327

Concerning
 ourselves
 with
 politics
  335

Coda
  339

I
 end
 (it)
 here
  343

References
  346

Appendix
 A:
 Notes
  362

Appendix
 B:
 Letter
 of
 Invitation
 and
 Informed
 Consent
  366

Appendix
 C:
 Interview
 Guide
  369

Appendix
 D:
 Context
 of
 The
 Review
  370
vii
Acknowledgments

Interestingly, writing appreciation for those who have accompanied me in/during this
lengthy process seems a somewhat daunting task, not because I am at a loss for words (as
if), nor because there were only a few of you. Quite the opposite, and along with the
diverse (and special) roles each of you play in my life, therein lies the challenge.
Although I have space to name all of you, I may have to forgo written appreciation for
each of your unique individual contributions to my life and/or studies.
Yet there are those who I would be remiss not to mention in this way.
I would first like to sincerely express how grateful I am to my four participants, Marion,
Galya, Evelyne and Jocelyne for their participation in this research. Without their
honesty, candour, passion and willingness to describe the difficult details of their lives,
this dissertation would not be what it is.
Likewise, I have deep appreciation and respect for my committee members and their
willingness to remain with me over time and through the vagaries of conducting doctoral
research at mid-life while living with a chronic illness. Special thanks to my brilliant co-
supervisors, Dr. Mary Ellen Purkis and Dr. Antoinette Oberg, for patiently and with
exquisite timing and grace expertly encouraging, nudging, supporting, advocating,
thinking, reflecting, discussing, understanding, accommodating, questioning, provoking,
critiquing, and in uniquely flexible ways enabling me to proceed non-traditionally. To Dr.
Katherine Teghtsoonian for your thoughtful and provocative engagement with me and
my nascent understandings of feminist political theory during our directed study, and for
continuing with me over time. And to Dr. Carol McDonald for generously volunteering
to join my committee mid-degree, for reading my work with great heart, spirit and
understanding, and for being there.
I am blessed with many longstanding, deep and nurturing friendships, which comprise
different communities and means of support. All of you willingly join me in whatever
enjoyment there is to be had when we spend time together, usually a lot. From these
communities I wish to thank all of you.
viii
From the early days of my doctoral studies, my interdisciplinary doctoral women’s study
group members (all now with earned doctorates), Wendy Donawa, Enid Elliott, Pat
Rasmussen, Heather Hermanson and Joan Boyce, to whom I am deeply grateful for
stimulating my intellect, supporting me in heartfelt ways and refusing the split. Latterly,
thanks also to Carolyn Schellenberg and Connie Carter. And many thanks to Janet
Sheppard and the members of the Thesis Completion Group for helping me to keep on
track during the last two years. Deep gratitude and appreciation also goes to Connie Frey
for nurturing my creativity.
Thanks to four people (two former graduate students I taught) who keep me
intellectually, socially and politically engaged, nourished, and my wine glass full—
Catherine van Mossel, Margaret Scaia, Lorelei Newton, and Karen Hurley—my life
would be much diminished without each of you. Deep appreciation also goes to my dear
friends Carmie Verdone and Susan Dempsey for walking closely beside me with great
heart in our shared spiritual and embodied lives, and love of good food.
From my life pre-disability come some of my most enduring friendships. We have come
a long way together and all of you live deeply in my heart, including my two close
friends from high school, and nursing school at the Hospital for Sick Children, Sharon
Broughton and Jane McDonald. A few years ago when I decided I wanted to have more
fun in my life I turned again to friends I lived and played with years ago (and you didn’t
disappoint). Thanks to Pamela Ker, Jo-Anne Colquhoun & Tim Cooper, Doug Kelly
(Isobel Doyle), Neil Smith (Deidre Björnson), and Susan Manchee, and from my earlier
life in Rossland, BC, Raymond Gaudart and Jenny Baillie, for playfully reminding me
who I am. Likewise to my dear friend, Denise Tarlier, old ski patrol pal and now nursing
colleague. Appreciation also goes to Debbie Tippett, who has remained close (and
immensely supportive) since our BSN days. Likewise to my quick-witted, cherished
friend Martha Mackay, like me a former Torontonian who lived in Rossland and pursued
a doctorate in nursing.
From those in the disability studies community from whom I have learned much and
whose support and counsel deepens my ongoing understandings of being a woman living
ix
with disability, a deep debt of gratitude is offered to Kari Krogh, Susan Mahipaul and
Kirsty Liddiard.
A good life with disability means establishing trusted relationships with health care
professionals and I am blessed to be connected with and cared for expertly by Louise
Wood, Jim Tucker, David Attwell. Kavan Yu, Barbara Clearbridge, and Jacklin Houle.
I also wish to thank my sisters Jill Kimpson and Molly Charko for the gift of love they
give me, especially valued as our family diminishes in size with the loss of our parents.
And thanks to my stepmother Joan Kimpson for believing in me, Corey and Joe Kimpson
for taking such good care of Dad in his declining years, and my stepfather, Warren
Jackman (d. 2009) who recognized with generosity the financial disadvantage being
disabled has placed on my life. To my cherished companion animals, Puck (d. 2012) and
Fionn, whose warm bodies, joyful exuberance, and unconditional acceptance have been a
tonic during difficult times.
Lastly (but not least ), I offer untold appreciation, gratitude and respect to my beloved
partner Greg Mittag, who knows deeply what it means to live with and be uniquely and
wholeheartedly able to support a loved one living with a disabling chronic illness while
pursuing a doctorate, which he has accepted willingly and with kindness, and for which I
will be forever grateful.
x

This research was partially funded through the generous support of the following
institutions, to which I am grateful:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, University of
Victoria President’s Research Scholarship, the BC Health Research Foundation
Studentship Grant, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research/BC Medical
Services Foundation Doctoral Trainee Award, the Ord & Linda Anderson
Interdisciplinary Scholarship, University of Victoria Interdisciplinary Fellowship, the
Coast Capital Citizenship Award, University of Victoria Graduate Teaching Awards (2),
Leslie and Kaye Jowett Memorial Scholarship (for disabled graduate students), Ray
Hadfield Memorial Fellowship, Canadian Career Development Foundation Leadership
Scholarship (Stu Conger Award), and The Hospital for Sick Children Alumnae
Association Hilda Rolstin Memorial Award (first recipient).