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The Commodification of Care: Precarious Custodial Relationships, Disability, and Settler-Colonialism

Nicole Ineese-Nash ^a

Kathryn Underwood ^a

Arlene Hache ^b

Patty Douglas ^c

^{^a}Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

^{^b}Keepers of the Circle, Canada

^{^c}Brandon University, Canada

Disability and the Changing Contexts of Family and Personal Relationships

ISBN: 978-1-83753-221-6, eISBN: 978-1-83753-220-9

Publication date: 10 June 2024

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore the intricate relationships between young disabled children, their families, institutional settings, and disability services in Canada, with an emphasis on the challenges stemming from unstable custodial dynamics and governmental interference. Drawing on data from a 9-year longitudinal Institutional Ethnography across three provinces and one territory, we analyze the experiences of 41 families who have interacted with the child welfare system, foster care, adoption processes, family courts, or other custodial procedures – many of them are Indigenous or live with low income. The historic and ongoing state control and institutionalization of disabled children in Canada are interrogated through the lens of settler-colonialism (Awj, 2017; Disability Rights International, 2021). This chapter scrutinizes constructs framed by colonial narratives, including disabled childhoods, notions of disability, the “best interest of the child,” the archetype of the “good parent,” and the designation of custodial “status.” We present Institutional Ethnography as a method of de-constructing these systems and identifying care principles in the changing context of family.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all of the partner organizations of the IECSS project, a full list of which is on our website Social Inclusion, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages 48–59 55 (www.inclusiveearlychildhood.ca). This research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant #895–2018-1022, Partnership Development Grant #890–2014-0096, the Toronto Metropolitan University, the Corporation of the County of Wellington, City of Toronto, City of Hamilton, the District of Timiskaming Social Services Administration Board, and the University of Guelph. This research has obtained ethics approval from Toronto Metropolitan University (lead partner organization) and 17 other ethics boards or review committees at university affiliates of the co-investigators and community organizations where recruitment was carried out.

Citation

Ineese-Nash, N., Underwood, K., Hache, A. and Douglas, P. (2024), "The Commodification of Care: Precarious Custodial Relationships, Disability, and Settler-Colonialism", Ciciurkaite, G. and Brown, R.L. (Ed.) Disability and the Changing Contexts of Family and Personal Relationships (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 15), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 61-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-354720240000015006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited