Social Lives
Author: Léa Urzel, PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University
The Social Justice Week is currently taking place at Maynooth University. Thanks to the collaboration of staff, students and other agencies, an array of events has been organised to promote social justice and human rights. This year’s edition is dedicated to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established ‘an action plan for people, planet and prosperity’ and introduced 17 SDGs to guide decisions of a wide range of stakeholders at State, regional and global level. Under this UN initiative, world leaders have committed to taking joint action to achieve the SDGs and the 169 associated targets over the next 15 years. Integrated and indivisible, the SDGs and its related targets address global challenges ranging from poverty, health, education, gender equality to clean water, sanitation, or climate action.
To mark Social Justice Week, the DANCING project have co-hosted with the MU Sexualities and Genders Network the event ‘A conversation with Dr Rosaleen McDonagh, author of Unsettled’ (Skein Press, 2021). Alongside hosting this event, we felt it was important to reflect on the contribution that the DANCING project has endeavoured to give to the realisation of the SDGs.
DANCING: Researching Disability and Diversity in Culture
The project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths ’, in short DANCING, is funded by the European Research Council. It is led by Prof. Delia Ferri and hosted by Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology and ALL Institute. Within DANCING, we are researching disability and diversity in culture in European Union (EU) law, as well as exploring the right of all persons with disabilities to take part in cultural life, including the recognition of disability identities, such as Deaf culture, as an essential aspect of enhancing cultural diversity in the European Union.
DANCING aims to advance understanding of barriers and facilitators to cultural participation, of how EU law can be used to make culture fully inclusive of persons with disabilities and to enhance cultural diversity. In that connection it also aims to develop a new theorisation of the promotion of cultural diversity in the EU legal order. To do so, DANCING adopts an interdisciplinary and participatory approach, combining legal scholarship with empirical and arts-based research.
Although we are still in the project’s relatively early stages, we have engaged in legal-doctrinal research as well as empirical research, through focus groups and semi-structured interviews. In this regard, we have carried out semi-structured interviews with organisations of persons with disabilities and organisations working on arts and disability across the EU in order to identify barriers and facilitators to culture. Thus far, a key finding is that there is generally a fragmentary project-based approach, impacting on the cultural participation of persons with disabilities. When best practices arise from local or cross-country projects, there is often a lack of follow-up or sharing of outcomes. Furthermore, our findings show that people working in the cultural sector can be perceived to have limited awareness and knowledge about accessibility, that they often fail to consult comprehensively with people with disabilities and representative organisations, especially in the planning stages of initiatives and programmes. This represents a barrier to participation, with good practice often being dependent on the enthusiasm of an individual or single institution rather than arising from processes that are mainstreamed across the cultural landscape.
We will engage with a dance company composed of disabled and non-disabled dancers for the arts-based research. Dance will be a case study throughout the course of the project. Additionally, a final dance performance will mark the end of DANCING, providing an artistic representation of a new theorisation of cultural diversity.
DANCING and the SDGs
Through this project, we are committed to challenging the cultural exclusion of people with disabilities and increasing understanding of what facilitates cultural participation of people with disabilities. Ultimately, we want to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive society, an aim that is inevitably reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
DANCING’s research looks at the right to participate in culture in terms of access to culture as audiences, but also in terms of active participation as producers of culture. It therefore focuses on access to cultural goods, services and heritage, as well as on artistic education and opportunities to work in the cultural sector. By considering the artistic education of persons with disabilities, or lack thereof, DANCING clearly relates to SDG 4 (Quality Education) and associated targets focusing on ensuring equal access to all levels of education and vocational training, including for persons with disabilities (Target 4.5), and making sure that education facilities are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all (Target 4.a). Target 4.7 also mentions the importance of appreciating how cultural diversity and culture contribute to sustainable development through education, an issue to which we are particularly receptive in DANCING since cultural diversity is a central element of our project.
Furthermore, we believe that culture plays a major role in creating inclusive and diverse societies, and that the right of persons with disabilities to work in the cultural sector should be respected and their contribution to cultural production valued on an equal basis with others. In that respect, DANCING is consistent with SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), notably Target 8.5 which focuses on achieving, by 2030, ‘full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value’.
As mentioned previously, the DANCING projects intends ultimately to contribute to and promote a more inclusive and diverse society, an aim generally reflected in SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). In doing so, it aligns with Target 10.2 on empowering and promoting ‘the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status’ and Target 10.3 on ensuring equal opportunity and reducing inequalities of outcome.
If you want to learn more about the project, see Professor Delia Ferri’s interview with the European Research Council .
This blog has been written within the remit of the project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 864182).
