Theory Session - James Shelley

The 'disabling professions' hypothesis, put forward in the 1970s by philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich (and expanded by various other theorists through to the 1990s) postulates that the increasing professionalization of services in a community incapacitates citizens' ability to self-organize and take ownership of their personal and collective wellbeing. Illich argues that the more a society is carved into professional roles, the more new human deficiencies are required to supply an ever growing economic demand for servicing. In effect, the theory goes, the professionalization of a society drives a vicious feedback loop that essentially incentivizes the infantilization segments of the population (usually defined by class) in order to create evermore roles for professional interventionists. The result is perhaps ironic: in a society organized by and for professionals, the greatest loss of self-efficacy and self-determination is suffered by the classes who are most aggressively determined to be in need of professional "help." I am particularly interested in considering and critiquing Illich in the present context of rapidly expanding mental health services and interventions and in light of the increasing commodification and commercialization of education.

Bio: James Shelley is Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing and Research Project Coordinator in the Office of the Dean at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. In addition, he serves as Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator in the Department of Geography and Environment in the Faculty of Social Science. James also directs the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Lab (cas.uwo.ca), an interdisciplinary hub for complexity and system scholarship across faculties at Western University. In the community, he presently sits on the boards of London Public Library, Museum London, and Literacy Links South Central.