Critical points against an Australasian therapeutic recreation association: towards community leisure through enabling justice

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to articulate arguments against the establishment of a therapeutic recreation association in Australasia. We believe that this is an important debate as the outcomes will place people with disabilities in very different locations within leisure discourse. It is argued that the establishment of a therapeutic recreation association will reinforce medicalised conceptions of disability that disempower individual freedom for professional control. Such a course of action would fail to recognise the contemporary influences of social approaches to disability that seek to provide an enabling environment to empower people with disabilities to forge their own leisure identities. Further, the history and development of therapeutic recreation has cultural contexts that require careful examination from an Australasian perspective. The arguments presented are informed by contemporary ideas within leisure theory, disability studies, human rights approaches to marginalised groups and the broader citizenship literature.