State of Existence A Minor Field Study on Liminality and Enforcement of Existence in Jordan

Abstract: This study comprises a three month fieldwork and 25 interviews conducted in Jordan on community based rehabilitation of persons with intellectual disability. The analytic procedure was conducted in an explicit and systematic manner much inspired by Grounded Theory. Interviewing social workers engaged in introducing community based rehabilitation in Jordan the study came to unveil their struggle with acquiring social positions for their previously liminal clients. This process took place closely interconnected with, and in opposition to, the social workers perceptions of resistance. Reception from the community initially consisted of resistance and consists of a denial of social existence of persons with intellectual disability. Denial of social existence was tightly bound to denial of existence in public space and the denial of visibility and exposure in the community. The study follows the work of creating and enforcing social existence for persons who were recurrently denied such. Hidden, avoided and feared the social worker places the child with intellectual disabilities in the midst of the community, most often within public schools.