Brokenness / Transformation: Reflections on Academic Critiques of L'Arche

Abstract

L'Arche, an international federation of communities for adults with intellectual disabilities, has been critiqued by disability studies scholars throughout its fifty-year history due to its religiosity, its apparent lack of a rigorous stance on the need to address policy concerning people with disabilities, its philosophy concerning disability's meanings, and features of its language and discourse.  I address these concerns as someone who is both an academic and a long-term member of a L'Arche community. While there is historically limited and uneasy interaction between these two communities, I suggest there is potential for mutual and worthwhile exchange from theoretical and practical perspectives.