Jonathan Schlunk: ”Var redo – alla redo? Scouting, disability and the importance of childhood”

Jonathan Schlunk

Beskrivning:

“Vad ska vi göra med Ture?" - In 1957, Karin Stensland Junker published a handbook on the problems of children with disabilities in Swedish society and invented Ture, a deaf boy, who she used as a projection for various disabilities to illustrate the impact of scouting. She addressed scout leaders, doctors and teachers directly to argue for the integration of scouts with disabilities in the Swedish scout movement.

Based on her handbook, other publications between 1952 and 1964, and photo and film archives, I examine how childhood and disability were negotiated and defined in the context of the scout movement. I show (1) how Junker was already advocating a normalizing approach in the late 1950s, which would form the basis of the relational model in early disability studies in Scandinavia a decade later, (2) the role assigned to nature, camping and the material space of the camps, and (3) discuss how the scout movement's engagement can be read in relation to the Swedish welfare state.