HHH Column: Selling Het Dorp, or the transnational framing of Social Rehabilitation by Floris Plak

The HHH column is a monthly blog in which History, Health & Healing members share their thoughts on research, current affairs, or anything to do with medical history. Each edition is written by a different member — in due time, we hope to offer everybody a chance to publish a contribution. This month, the floor is for Floris Plak, PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His aim is to study Het Dorp, an accessible neighbourhood for physically disabled people in Arnhem, as space of transnational encounters against the backdrop of global developments since the 1960s.

Selling Het Dorp, or the transnational framing of Social Rehabilitation

Floris Plak

He must have been a striking figure. With his neatly combed grey parting, prominent, black-rimmed glasses, and somewhat formal demeanour, he was also a rather senior newcomer. In the Netherlands, Arie Klapwijk had already become a household name a few years earlier when, together with the young, spirited TV presenter Mies Bouwman, he hosted the largest telethon in Dutch television history. Held on the night of Monday, November 26, to Tuesday, November 27, the broadcast sought to raise funds for the construction of an accessible neighbourhood for physical disabled people in the leafy outskirts of Arnhem. But there in London, in April 1973, he seemed a bit nervous. Speaking as one of the few international guests at a regional conference for parents of disabled children, he declared ‘the problems of parents, particularly those of the severely disabled, are the same all over the world.’^[1] All over the world, he continued, disabled people who would never be able to hold paid employment, did not fit into the ‘old classical system of medicine,’ which labelled them as ‘hopeless cases’ and consigned them to hospitals, nursing homes, or elderly care facilities.^[2]Consequently, they exhibit identical ‘symptoms of neglect,’ marked by ‘feelings of ignorance, misconception, and reduced attraction.’^[3] 

But first, what kind of world did Arie Klapwijk step into? The editorial board of Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, the journal published by the Dutch association for rehabilitation professionals (NVR), reported in its coverage of the 1969 World Congress in Dublin that the event had offered ‘little new’ for Dutch practitioners.^[4] Organized by the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (ISRD), the congress primarily focused on functional or vocational rehabilitation. This approach sought to mould disabled people to functional norms associated with paid employment or productivity, often through prosthetic services or retraining.^[5] Proponents of this approach used the congress to push for agreements on the mandatory employment of disabled people in mainstream industries and the planning of sheltered workshops.^[6] However, the editors remarked in their January 1970 issue that these proposals were ‘devoid of any vision’ and did not recognize the already evolving ‘social and psychological meaning of paid employment.’^[7] In the post-technological society, they argued, employing disabled people in industrial or productive sectors would no longer be viable, as mechanization and overproduction would eliminate many of their jobs. In this new reality, they concluded — reflected in the rising prevalence of social insurance and benefits — ‘deviation from the labour norm would become a virtue,’ allowing them to engage in more meaningful endeavours within cultural of creative sectors.^[8]

Creating space 

The shared critique of the overemphasis on paid work by proponents of functional or vocational rehabilitation led to the creation of alternative, transnational spaces of knowledge, as exemplified by the International Cerebral Palsy Society (ICPS). This organization, founded during the Dublin congress by Arie Klapwijk, W.P. Bijleveld (director of Het Dorp), and the British James Loring, emerged from the former Sports and Leisure Group of the ISRD and members of the British Spastics Society. Its aim was ‘to encourage more voluntary engagement with sports and recreational activities as a means of fostering new and potentially better opportunities for development.’^[9] As the congress report in the June 1971 issue explained, the opening day of the first ICPS congress, entitled Residential Care and the Adult Spastics, held in Het Dorp, vividly illustrated the organization’s raison’d’être.^[10] The opening film, of Dutch origin and titled Live and Let Live, followed a young woman without arms who, due to her disability, was unable to participate in the workforce. Even though she had taught herself to type with her feet, her typing speed proved too slow for the administrative jobs she applied for. She became increasingly isolated as her friends visited less frequently, and her environment lacked alternatives for meaningful daily activities or opportunities to make new friends.^[11]

The congress addressed topics related to social rehabilitation, a movement later defined in the journal as ‘services designed to support disabled people and their families in adapting to their new reality and leading meaningful lives, even without paid employment.’^[12] In his keynote lecture, Secretary-General James Loring emphasized that the focus was on ‘human beings’ who, like their able-bodied peers, had the right to develop their own ‘life potential.’^[13] As reported in the June 1971 issue, the first day of the congress explored the everyday lives of disabled people in living arrangements across Denmark, England, Sweden, and the Netherlands, while the second day delved into the largely uncharted topic of sexuality. Sven-Olof Brattgård, the Swedish founder of the renowned Fokus, which offered the opportunity to rent accessible homes within mainstream society, as opposed to the more isolated environment of Het Dorp, for example, advocated for the deinstitutionalization of living arrangements, stating that it was crucial for disabled people ‘to lead a normal life in society, in cooperation and integration with others.’^[14] In his Fokus, they could rent a home ‘on the same terms and responsibilities’ as any other tenant and enjoy the ‘freedom to make their own choices and take responsibility for them.’^[15] On the second day, the Swedish film The Language of Love illustrated the sexual needs of disabled people and championed the importance of sexual education.^[16]

Elysian thinking 

The first ICPS congress, briefly discussed above, is just one example of how the organizers, with Het Dorp serving as its base, sought to create space for new knowledge and experiences. The ICP’s affiliation with the already established networks of the ISRD and the Spastics Society shows that these spaces did not operate in isolation but actively cooperated, attending each other’s meetings, and influenced each other. Nevertheless, both were inclined to view their own practices, and those of their allies, as more advanced than the other. A notable example of this is a publication by Klapwijk himself in the renowned British journal Rehabilitation World, titled Motivation of Life and published in 1976, a year after the eponymous ICPS congress at Het Dorp. In this article, Klapwijk argued that contemporary rehabilitation practices placed too much emphasis on paid employment as its ultimate goal, leaving many unemployed disabled people feeling useless. In fact, he concluded, there were more ways to contribute to society, such as in various volunteer roles in policymaking and social healthcare.^[17] In the same issue, American rehabilitation physician Leonard Weitzman criticized the plan, stating that Klapwijk was following a ‘pursuit of the Elysian fields,’ portraying a fairytale in where ‘everyone, particularly the disabled, can live a life of fulfilment based primarily on doing something meaningful for one’s own satisfaction or the benefit of others.’^[18]

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^[1] Arie Klapwijk, ‘Adult Spastics over 40,’ The Spastics Society: Neglected Years (Lecture, London, October 13, 1973), 1-36, 1.

^[2] Ibid., 2. 

^[3] Ibid., 4-6. 

^[4] ‘Dublin 1969,’ Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, January, 1969, 5-11, 11.

^[5] Historical studies on transnational knowledge exchange in disability care and rehabilitation have predominantly focused on functional or vocational rehabilitation, see for example: Julie Powell, Bodies of Work. The First World War and the Transnational Making of Rehabilitation(Cambridge University Press, 2022); Gildas Brégain, Pour une histoire du handicap au XXe siècle. Approaches transnationales (Europe et Amériques) (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2018). 

^[6] ‘Evaluatie in het 11e Wereldcongres der ISRD,’ Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, January, 1969, 25-37.

^[7] Ibid., 31.

^[8] Ibid., 35.

^[9] For the founding history of the ICPS, see: ‘ICPS Holland-Seminar 1975,’ Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, May, 1975, 34.

^[10] ‘Congres International Cerebral Palsy Society,’ Tijdschrift voor revalidatie, June, 1971, 1-8. 

^[11] Ibid., 6-8.

^[12] Aulikki Kananoja, ‘Revalidatie in Finland,’ Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, October, 1975, 14.

^[13] ‘Congres International Cerebral Palsy Society,’ 1.

^[14] ‘Het Fokus-projekt,’ Tijdschrift voor Revalidatie, September, 1972, 13-16, 14.

^[15] Ibid., 13.

^[16] ‘Congres International Cerebral Palsy Society,’ 6.

^[17] Arie Klapwijk, ‘Helping the Severely Disabled Find a Motivation of Life,’ Rehabilitation World Vol. 2, No. 3 (1976), 10-12, 35.

^[18] Ibid., 35.