Browsing by Author "Chadwick, Rachelle"
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- ItemOpen AccessThe gendered experiences of women, men and couples who plan, have and narrate homebirths(2015) Daniels, Nicole Miriam; Moore, Elena; Chadwick, RachelleIn South Africa excellent scholarship exists on women's experiences of homebirth but no studies have yet examined men's or couples' experiences. The thesis sought to make a valid contribution by uncovering a relational view of homebirths that made sense of the gendered interactions and relational negotiations of women, men and couples who experienced homebirth. It adopted a longitudinal, qualitative approach based on thirty interviews with five couples before and after homebirth. Dyadic interviewing and the listening guide offered relational methods of collecting and analysing data that additionally engaged the researcher in highly reflexive modes of producing knowledge. By foregrounding the relational context, narrative constructions of homebirths showcased simultaneous operations of gender as both opportunity and constraint. This study uncovered the active social processes involved in couples' decision making narratives and the relational interactions in their homebirth experiences. Joint narratives of homebirth displayed the interconnectedness of relating-selves where couples' relational scripts were brought to bear on the meanings of homebirth. Women and men found meaning in their experiences through connection with others; men privileged a selfless masculinity and women a self-reliant femininity. Both positioned women's relationship to their body and thus their baby as central to homebirth. Through in-depth scrutiny of the practice of homebirths, this study detailed how intimate interpersonal relationships are shaped by broader social and gendered processes.
- ItemOpen Access“Half a man?” Still a human: Narratives on the impact of a spinal cord injury on coloured men living with paraplegia(2019) Louw, Helenard Kingsley Madiba; Chadwick, Rachelle; Nomdo, GideonThere is an overwhelming body of research in the Global North that focuses on the narratives of the impact of a spinal cord injury on men living with paraplegia, while existing research in South Africa and the Global South lacks knowledge on these narratives. This study explored the narratives on the impact of a spinal cord injury on fifteen coloured men living with paraplegia on the Cape Flats. This study adopted a life story approach, as a primary research methodology, and examined how these men constructed and told their life stories, how meanings and experiences of living with paraplegia were conveyed, and how they negotiated the intersection of disability, masculinity, race, class and sexuality in their lives. A participatory action research (PAR) methodology, photo-voice, was used as a complimentary methodology which depicted how these men visually represented the way they think main-stream society sees them and the way they see themselves. Drawing on Frank’s (1995) work on narratives and illness, this study used two life stories and theoretically shows how life stories with a central focus on paraplegia as a spinal cord injury are constructed and narrated. Through a narrative thematic analysis, themes and sub-themes highlighted the complexities and tensions in the construction and performance of masculinities after the injury. The following themes emerged from the narratives: feelings of shame and infantilization, a loss of independency, dehumanizing social perceptions of being a man living with a disability, vulnerability to violence, and challenges in sexual intercourse and intimacy. The narratives also show that a man in this context can develop a positive sense of self through learning to live independently, strategies to prevent violence, redefining sex, and redefining what it means to be a man and ‘disabled’.