Deficiência e exclusão social: o papel da representação no contexto dos museus

Abstract

This article has its starting point on the postdoctoral research The Representation Disability in the Museums Collections of DGPC: discourse, identities and sense of belonging (FCT: SFRH / BPD / 110497/2015) under development in the Department of Sciences and Heritage Techniques of the Faculty of Letters of Porto and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage. The text focuses on the problem of disability and social exclusion, paying particular attention to the relationship between the social function of museums, inclusion and combating social inequalities. The issue of disability will be analysed as a social phenomenon, problematizing the creation of social identities and categories that supported the discrimination of disabled people, limiting their social participation. The public cultural narratives of disability - usually within negative and pejorative meanings - create misconceptions about the reality of people with disabilities. If, on the one hand, these meanings restrict the way how society relates to disability, on the other hand, they lead to the identitys dissociation of this social group.