Exploiting patient labour at Kew Cottages, Australia, 1887-1950

Autor: Lee-Ann. Monk
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: British Journal of Learning Disabilities. 38:86-94
ISSN: 1468-3156
1354-4187
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-3156.2010.00634.x
Popis: Accessible summary • This article looks at the work carried out by people with learning disabilities who lived in the Kew Cottages in Australia. • It argues that these people were treated unfairly because they were not paid for the work they did, even though that work was valuable and important. • Even though they were being treated unfairly, some people at the Cottages may have chosen to work because it gave them a way to spend their time and because people who worked had more freedom and were better treated. Summary This article examines the exploitation of patient labour at Kew Cottages, Australia’s first purpose-built state institution for people with learning disabilities. Analysing historical evidence for the period 1887–1950 shows that unpaid patient labour contributed significantly to the economy of the Cottages and so to the government department of which they were a part. It also argues that government failure to provide adequately for patient needs and to rectify unsafe working conditions further exploited working patients. The final section of the article examines why some patient-labourers may have chosen to work, arguing that the restrictive, materially impoverished and relatively isolated social world in which they found themselves were an important influence on their decisions to do so.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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