Distinct Social Groups Research Articles

Testing the information centre hypothesis in a multilevel society.

In various animal species conspecifics aggregate at sleeping sites. Such aggregations can act as information centres where individuals acquire up-to-date knowledge about their environment. In some species, communal sleeping sites comprise individuals from multiple groups, where each group maintains stable membership over time. We used GPS tracking to simultaneously record group movement in a population of wild vulturine guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum) to investigate whether communal sleeping sites can facilitate the transfer of information among individuals across distinct groups. These birds live in large and stable groups that move both together and apart, often forming communal roosts containing up to five groups. We first test whether roosts provide the opportunity for individuals to acquire information from members of other groups by examining the spatial organization at roosts. The GPS data reveal that groups intermix, thereby providing an opportunity for individuals to acquire out-group information. We next conduct a field experiment to test whether naïve groups can locate novel food patches when co-roosting with knowledgeable groups. We find that co-roosting substantially increases the chances for the members of a naïve group to discover a patch known to individuals from other groups at the shared roost. Further, we find that the discovery of food patches by naïve groups subsequently shapes their space use and inter-group associations. We also draw on our long-term tracking to provide examples that demonstrate natural cases where communal roosting has preceded large-scale multi-group collective movements that extend into areas beyond the groups' normal ranges. Our findings support the extension of the information centre hypothesis to communal sleeping sites that consist of distinct social groups.

The socioeconomic gradient in overweight and obesity among Colombian adult and pediatric populations: A scoping review.

Background: The imminent increase in overweight and obesity prevalence constitutes a pervasive concern for the adult and pediatric Colombian population. Nonetheless, the unequal distribution across distinct social groups limits the implementation of public health policies targeting these escalating rates. Aim: This study aimed to compile existing evidence regarding the prevalence of overweight and obesity in relation to the socioeconomic status (SES) of the Colombian population. Methods: A scoping review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews parameters in MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, and LILACS databases for inclusion of investigations published up to January 2024. Results: Twenty-two cross-sectional studies were included. A higher prevalence of overweight and obesity was documented in adults with lower SES defined by social stratum and monetary income, while in particular for nonpregnant adult women, the prevalence of excess weight was higher in the medium-low socioeconomic stratum. In the pediatric population, higher SES defined by social stratum was directly related to an increased prevalence and risk of overweight and obesity. The ownership of household assets, however, was positively related to the risk of overweight in both adult and pediatric populations. Conclusion: The findings of this investigation disclose a socioeconomic gradient in overweight and obesity in Colombia that resembles the epidemiological distribution in high-income countries for adults, though similar to low-income countries for the pediatric population. Further intersectoral interventions aimed at the most vulnerable groups are imperative to mitigate the inequalities that condition their predisposition to overweight and obesity.

Social Risk Groups in Patients With Diabetes With Differing Eye Care Utilization and Vision Outcomes.

To evaluate whether latent class analysis on social determinants of health (SDoH) data can identify social risk groups that differ by adverse SDoH and vision outcomes in patients with diabetes. This was a prospective cohort study of adults ≥18years with diabetes who completed a SDoH survey. Latent class analysis was used to cluster patients into social risk groups. The association of social risk group and severity of diabetic retinopathy, history of lapses in diabetic retinopathy care, and visual acuity was evaluated. A total of 1006 participants were included. The three social risk groups differed by sociodemographic characteristics. The average age was 65, 60, and 54 in Groups 1, 2, and 3 respectively. Most (51%) patients in group 1 were non-Hispanic White, 66% in group 2 were non-Hispanic Black, and 80% in group 3 were Hispanic. Group 1 had the lowest burden of adverse SDoH per person (average 3.6), group 2 had 8.2, and group 3 had 10.5. In general, group 1 lacked diabetic retinopathy knowledge, group 2 had financial insecurity and difficulties with transportation, and group 3 had financial insecurity and did not have health insurance. Social risk group was associated with a history of lapses in diabetic retinopathy care, and presenting with worse vision. We identified distinct social risk groups among patients seeking care for diabetic retinopathy that differed by social needs, eye care utilization, and vision. Identifying these groups and their specific needs can help guide interventions to effectively address adverse SDoH and improve eye care utilization and vision outcomes among patients with diabetes.

Individual Differences in Collective Memory: Heterogeneity of Personal Emotional Memory in Social Groups

This research investigates the nuanced landscape of emotional memory within diverse social groups in the United States, focusing on the period from 2010 to 2020. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the study explores individual differences in emotional memory scores across three distinct social groups (Social Group A, Social Group B, and Social Group C). The findings reveal significant variations in emotional memory, with Social Group B exhibiting consistently higher mean scores. These variations underscore the intricate interplay between group identity and the encoding of emotionally charged events. The study contributes to the fields of psychology and sociology by emphasizing the importance of examining individual differences within social groups, particularly through the lens of emotional memory. Practical implications extend to mental health interventions, community outreach, and policy development, emphasizing the need for tailored strategies that acknowledge and address the diverse emotional needs of different social groups.

Female Identity, Gender and Politics in Partition Novels: A Comparative Study of Ice Candy Man and Clear Light of Day

The division of India and the formation of a new nation Pakistan has had a transformative impact on the whole subcontinent. The partition resulted in widespread violence that not only posed a challenge to the nation's identity but also had a profound impact on the identity of women, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. Women, who are seen as the pride of the family, particularly in Asian nations such as India, are subjected to oppression and derogation in the name of religious, social, and cultural traditions. They are treated as commodities and objects of entertainment by men. The partition has had a profound impact on both the collective mindset of the people and their social interactions. Throughout history, women have consistently experienced subjugation under patriarchal dominance, and this was most evident during the split. The treatment of women during partition exemplifies the treatment of women as a distinct social group on the Indian subcontinent. The partition of the Indian subcontinent had a profound impact on the lives of women, causing significant trauma. Amidst the tumultuous period of partition, certain famous authors such as Bapsi Sidwa and Anita Desai have drawn parallels between the bloodshed that transpired and the brutality inflicted upon women. The violence was of such magnitude that certain dads resorted to the act of killing their own daughters. Women were killed in the pursuit of preserving their family's reputation. Writers such as Bapsi Sidwa and Anita Desai aimed to contribute to the process of restructuring and rewriting the status of women in their works "Ice Candy Man" and "Clear Light of the Day," respectively. The objective of my research paper is to assess the extent to which they have achieved success in this endeavor. In this paper, I have conducted a thorough analysis of the female characters in both novels who have endured the atrocities of division. I will examine how these characters navigated the realms of politics and patriarchy.

Exploring Collective Experiences: Menstruation-related Memes and Menstrual Narratives in Social Media as an Avant-garde Form of Life Writing

The increasing prominence of social media as a platform for collective expression has facilitated the sharing of diverse experiences, including emotions, challenges, and circumstances, within distinct social groups. Notable hashtag campaigns such as #Metoo, #HappytoBleed, #TimesUp, #HeForShe, #EverydaySexism, and #IWillGoOut exemplify this trend, as they address pertinent issues concerning women’s rights and gender equality. In this context, menstruation narratives, communicated through various mediums such as stories, oral traditions, myths, and videos, are significant in conveying the collective experiences of menstruating individuals, and fostering camaraderie and support among those who share similar encounters. The advent and widespread utilization of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, have provided menstruating individuals with an accessible avenue to share their experiences, concerns, struggles, and anxieties through diverse content formats, such as written posts, images, video blogs, and memes. Notably, memes have emerged as a particularly popular medium for articulating collective life experiences, encompassing the sphere of menstruation. Widely disseminated on social media, these memes have become influential tools for communication, encapsulating shared sentiments in a visually engaging and often humorous manner. Against this backdrop, this research paper scrutinizes social media’s emergence as a novel platform for collective life expressions, with a specific focus on menstrual memes. It delves into the realm of life writing, exploring the varied ways in which menstruating individuals utilize social media to articulate their experiences. Additionally, it sheds light on the significant communicative potential of memes on menstruation, exemplifying their capacity to foster meaningful dialogues and challenge the societal stigma surrounding this natural phenomenon.

Prickly Connections: Sociodemographic Factors Shaping Attitudes, Perception and Biological Knowledge about the European Hedgehog

The modern lifestyle of humans is leading to a limited exposure to nature. While several wild species are adapting and thriving in anthropic environments, natural history knowledge is declining, and positive attitudes and behaviours towards nature are facing challenges. Because anticipating attitudes and engendering broad-based support for nature-related measures requires a good grasp of social contexts, we set out to evaluate the sociodemographic factors driving the perception, attitudes towards, and natural history knowledge of a keystone species—the European hedgehog. In 2022, we conducted a questionnaire answered by 324 Portuguese adults. We found generally positive feelings and attitudes towards this species. A higher degree of academic qualifications and previous personal experience with the species seem to play a role in (i) people’s perception about human impacts on hedgehogs and (ii) positive attitudes, especially during encounters where the animals were in difficulty. Despite this, the extent of natural history knowledge was low overall, and the study population was self-aware of this. Our insights underline the need to tailor educational programmes if we are to encourage people to re-establish meaningful connections with nature, to foster social support for biodiversity stewardship, and to implement the One Health approach in a way that resonates with distinct social groups.

Adapting to motherhood: Online participation in WeChat groups to support first-time mothers

This study investigates how first-time mothers participate in online discussions in WeChat groups to support their adaptation to motherhood. Online ethnography and in-depth interviews are employed to examine the psychological and behavioural aspects of these first-time mothers within WeChat groups, as well as the group construction process. The study’s findings show that WeChat groups, formed around common identity, have integrated new media technology into the cultural practices of distinct social groups. Within these groups, first-time mothers establish unique information exchange networks with other first-time mothers, enabling the sharing of experiences, emotions, and resources, ultimately creating de facto identity communities. Moreover, WeChat groups serve as vital channels for acquiring and distributing social capital, expanding parenting resources and social networks. The study highlights the crucial role of WeChat groups in providing support to first-time mothers as they navigate motherhood while fostering a sense of camaraderie and belonging within this virtual community.

Identity Theft: Social Withdrawal as a Risk Factor in Identity Development

During emerging adulthood, identity development may be facilitated through a myriad of social interactions, especially in settings such as college. However, some social withdrawal motivations may impede an individual from engaging with others, and consequently, may stifle identity exploration and commitment. The objective of this study was to examine differences between social withdrawal subtypes on levels of identity development in a variety of domains among college emerging adults. Participants for this study consisted of 792 undergraduate students (547 women, 69% European American). Distinct social withdrawal motivation groups were created (shy, unsocial, avoidant) and then compared using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results indicated the shy group struggled with identity commitment generally, the avoidant group struggled with identity exploration and commitment in multiple domains, and the unsocial and mixed withdrawn groups showed comparable levels of identity exploration and commitment to the non-withdrawn group both generally and across identity domains.

Current challenges of the modern family – alcohol consumption and violent behaviour

The text aims to provide a theoretical perspective on the relationship between alcohol consumption and violent behaviour in the modern family. The aim is to demonstrate the necessity of involving family members in the recovery process of the alcohol dependent person, with or without violent behaviour, both initially and along the way, even if the effects of such an approach are sometimes extremely difficult to deal with. In this article I will focus on how sociologists and anthropologists analyse the family as a distinct social group, with a particular focus on the differences between the behaviour of traditional family members and modern family members as specified in the literature. I will also highlight how substance use behaviour developed in the modern family is influenced or not by the involvement of family members in the helping process and what would be the consequences on the modern family environment when in particular alcohol consumption leads to violent behaviour. The article deals with the subject of substance use, with a particular focus on alcohol dependence in a theoretical scientific manner to which specific elements from the author’s practical experience are “added”.

Same-sex sexual behaviour and psychological health: CONSTANCES, a population survey in France

RationaleHaving same-sex partners is linked to poor psychological health and increased risk of suicide attempt. This link seems to be stronger for men than women. However, in France, there have been few studies of population samples, and the size of these studies does not always allow an in-depth analysis of these associations. Methods and resultsThis study explored these associations by analysing data from a large epidemiological survey conducted in France from 2012 to 2019 that included 84,791 women and 75,530 men. The frequencies and risk ratios of depression, suicide attempts, alcohol dependence and regular cannabis use were calculated regarding two groups: those with only the other sex partners and those with any same sex partners. Risk of alcohol addiction and cannabis use was greatly increased for women who had homosexual relations, even after adjustment for social, demographic and sexual life factors, which was not the case for men. However, risk of depression and suicide attempts was increased for men who had homosexual relations; this was also true for women but to a lesser extent. The estimates remained unchanged after stratifying the population by three distinct social groups defined by education level. ConclusionsThe analysis of these differences was possible because of the large sample size of the CONSTANCES survey and its recruitment in the general population. This study helps increase knowledge of the health of sexual minorities. It can help clinicians pay more attention to the potential distress of their patients and can continue to inform policymakers of the effects of discrimination and stigmatisation linked to homosexual behaviour.

The Conditional Effects of Natural Disasters on Public Approval of the President

Do natural disasters affect presidential approval ratings? In this study, we argue that in South Korea this relationship is conditional on regional partisan cleavages. Since partisanship induces perceptual biases among distinct social groups, we expect that (1) the president’s co-partisans will not blame their president even if the government fails to prevent or mitigate damage from natural disasters, and (2) human and economic losses from disasters, or delivery of disaster relief aid, may boost approval ratings in partisan strongholds. We test these hypotheses using South Korea’s Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in administrations. The results of vector auto-regressions show that regional partisanship toward the incumbent significantly influences job approval ratings in the wake of natural disasters. While public opinion in metropolitan areas was not affected by disaster losses, both presidents’ approval rose after disasters—typhoons and windstorms, in particular—struck their strongholds in the southeastern part of the country.

Triggering sustainable plastics consumption behavior: Identifying consumer profiles across Europe and designing strategies to engage them

The overproduction and consumption of plastics has led to a global challenge of plastic pollution and waste. Citizens in particular have an important role to play as they interact with plastics constantly in their daily lives as consumers, but different plastics consumer profiles are hardly understood, resulting in a lack of tailored and effective engagement strategies. This study identifies and analyzes sustainable plastics consumer profiles based on behavioral and psychological characteristics obtained through a large-scale survey deployed among 7600 respondents in eight European countries. The responses were subjected to regression modelling and a two-step cluster analysis. This study found personal responsibility and self-proclaimed knowledge to be critical variables affecting all stages of sustainable plastics consumption behavior (i.e. purchasing, using and disposing), as well as a factor differentiating consumer profiles. Concern and perceived consequences, on the other hand, are not found to be strong predictors of sustainable plastics consumption behavior. Four distinct social groups are identified and labeled as “Waste Warriors”, “Waste Conscious”, “Waste Moderate” and “Waste Laggards”. The results of the cluster analysis confirm that the citizen profiles are heterogeneous with large differences in behavior, attitudes, and perceptions related to plastics, indicating a need for differentiated engagement strategies. The results of this study enrich the literature on plastics sustainable consumption behavior and confirm the predicting power of various socio-demographic and psychological factors. In addition, the knowledge of the relative size, characteristics and unique needs of specific social groups related to plastics behavior are important for various stakeholders and key to develop suitable and effective marketing and policy plans to combat plastic pollution at a European scale.

Интеллигенция как событие: валаамское наследие и его хранители в позднем СССР

The articles argues that during the last Soviet decades, preservationist activism focused on sites of historical heritage mobilized public interest and produced cohesion of the Soviet intelligentsia as a collective social actor and thus a distinctive social group. This approach deconstructs the notion of "intelligentsia" as an elusive self-referential entity – a stable community of formal status. Instead, "intelligentsia" is interpreted as a situational product of a social process that demonstrated groupness only inasmuch as its participants shared common scenarios of activism. The article specifically studies the case of the Valaam archipelago in Lake Ladoga, the site of a fourteenth-century Orthodox monastery, as a venue for developing in the 1960s–1980s the cohesiveness of the intelligentsia as an emotional community and a collective social agent. Since the mid-1960s, Valaam has been a popular tourist destination that attracts Soviet citizens seeking to "perform cultureness" by experiencing exquisite "cultural consumption." With old monastery buildings neglected or occupied by retirement homes for war veterans, Valaam emblematized cultural ruins. As a powerful symbol of historical discontinuity and loss, it was an ideal object for the rhetoric of salvation developed by Soviet preservationists. People who shared this rhetoric and concern coalesced into a group that has typically been identified as "intelligentsia." Some of the activists moved to live on Valaam more or less permanently, forming the local cultural elite who considered it a place for communal work and spirituality. Through the late 1980s, the community of Valaam preservationists mobilized and politicized by escalating the rhetoric of loss and identifying the Russian Orthodox Church as a force capable of restoring Valaam to its alleged former glory. Such rhetoric and the practical scenario brought together various groups of preservationists into a single community of social action. However, when the Russian Orthodox Church eventually fully legalized and firmly established itself in the political sphere, the result was disappointing to the intelligentsia activists. The return of the former monastery to the church, an event wholeheartedly propagated by the old Valaam keepers, made the intelligentsia redundant and even discredited them as members of the Soviet establishment. No longer having a common mission and single object of devotion, they lost their former discursive unity and group cohesiveness, and thus experienced bitter disillusionment with their goal and mission.

From Adoption to Transnational Surrogacy: Family Formation among Non-Heterosexual Parents in Spain

Non-heterosexual families have emerged as a distinct social group since the Spanish Government approved same-sex marriage in 2005, including the right to adoption. While some same-sex couples have their children through intercountry adoption, legal restrictions limiting non-heterosexual families in most sending countries, among other factors, push same-sex couples to have their children through Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ARTs) and transnational surrogacy, particularly in the United States. However, once non-heterosexual Spanish people make the decision to become parents, they must face homophobic attitudes and policies in their processes of becoming parents, which contributes to delaying their family formation. Based on ethnographic data, this paper focuses on how national and transnational conditions affect non-heterosexual family formation in Spain. In doing so, global/local economies, national/international policies, as well as gender, class, citizenship, and legitimacy are considered.

A guide to sampling design for GPS‐based studies of animal societies

Abstract GPS‐based tracking is widely used for studying wild social animals. Much like traditional observational methods, using GPS devices requires making a number of decisions about sampling that can affect the robustness of a study's conclusions. For example, sampling fewer individuals per group across more distinct social groups may not be sufficient to infer group‐ or subgroup‐level behaviours, while sampling more individuals per group across fewer groups limits the ability to draw conclusions about populations. Here, we provide quantitative recommendations when designing GPS‐based tracking studies of animal societies. We focus on the trade‐offs between three fundamental axes of sampling effort: (1) sampling coverage—the number and allocation of GPS devices among individuals in one or more social groups; (2) sampling duration—the total amount of time over which devices collect data and (3) sampling frequency—the temporal resolution at which GPS devices record data. We first test GPS tags under field conditions to quantify how these aspects of sampling design can affect both GPS accuracy (error in absolute positional estimates) and GPS precision (error in the estimate relative position of two individuals), demonstrating that GPS error can have profound effects when inferring distances between individuals. We then use data from whole‐group tracked vulturine guineafowl Acryllium vulturinum to demonstrate how the trade‐off between sampling frequency and sampling duration can impact inferences of social interactions and to quantify how sampling coverage can affect common measures of social behaviour in animal groups, identifying which types of measures are more or less robust to lower coverage of individuals. Finally, we use data‐informed simulations to extend insights across groups of different sizes and cohesiveness. Based on our results, we are able to offer a range of recommendations on GPS sampling strategies to address research questions across social organizational scales and social systems—from group movement to social network structure and collective decision‐making. Our study provides practical advice for empiricists to navigate their decision‐making processes when designing GPS‐based field studies of animal social behaviours, and highlights the importance of identifying the optimal deployment decisions for drawing informative and robust conclusions.

Cultural participation and taste cultivation in a transitional setting: museum education fever in contemporary China

ABSTRACT Despite an extensive body of literature that has examined the role of museums in cultural reproduction and public education, most of the current discussion is western-centred. Whilst explorations of museum education in developing countries often focus on the institution, the agency perspective regarding how different social groups negotiate access to museum resources is relatively understudied. Aiming to address these lacunae, this paper presents a qualitative case study of a major museum in Hangzhou, China, focusing on how people from distinct social groups, with different orientations to cultural consumption, developed multiple strategies for cultural participation in museums. Their practices arguably reinforced and justified a dispositioned judgment of taste and class identities that mirror the social transition of contemporary China. Conceptually addressing Bourdieu’s theories of ‘cultural capital’ and ‘taste’, this study explores the dialectics between culture and power and demonstrates the complexity of cultural reproduction in a state-funded museum.

Epidemiologic Profile of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Epidemiological Study.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 is a significant public health issue, and monitoring confirmed cases and deaths is an essential epidemiologic tool. We evaluated the features in Brazilian hospitalized patients due to severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. We grouped the patients into the following categories: Influenza virus infection (G1), other respiratory viruses' infection (G2), other known etiologic agents (G3), SARS-CoV-2 infection (patients with COVID-19, G4), and undefined etiological agent (G5).MethodsWe performed an epidemiological study using data from DataSUS (https://opendatasus.saude.gov.br/) from December 2019 to October 2021. The dataset included Brazilian hospitalized patients due to SARI. We considered the clinical evolution of the patients with SARI during the COVID-19 pandemic according to the SARI patient groups as the outcome. We performed the multivariate statistical analysis using logistic regression, and we adopted an Alpha error of 0.05.ResultsA total of 2,740,272 patients were hospitalized due to SARI in Brazil, being the São Paulo state responsible for most of the cases [802,367 (29.3%)]. Most of the patients were male (1,495,416; 54.6%), aged between 25 and 60 years (1,269,398; 46.3%), and were White (1,105,123; 49.8%). A total of 1,577,279 (68.3%) patients recovered from SARI, whereas 701,607 (30.4%) died due to SARI, and 30,551 (1.3%) did not have their deaths related to SARI. A major part of the patients was grouped in G4 (1,817,098; 66.3%) and G5 (896,207; 32.7%). The other groups account for <1% of our sample [G1: 3,474 (0.1%), G2: 16,627 (0.6%), and G3: 6,866 (0.3%)]. The deaths related to SARI were more frequent in G4 (574,887; 34.7%); however, the deaths not related to SARI were more frequent among the patients categorized into the G3 (1,339; 21.3%) and G5 (25,829; 4.1%). In the multivariate analysis, the main predictors to classify the patients in the G5 when compared with G4 or G1-G4 were female sex, younger age, Black race, low educational level, rural place of residence, and the use of antiviral to treat the clinical signs. Furthermore, several features predict the risk of death by SARI, such as older age, race (Black, Indigenous, and multiracial background), low educational level, residence in a flu outbreak region, need for intensive care unit, and need for mechanical ventilatory support.ConclusionsThe possible COVID-19 underreporting (G5) might be associated with an enhanced mortality rate, more evident in distinct social groups. In addition, the patients' features are unequal between the patients' groups and can be used to determine the risk of possible COVID-19 underreporting in our population. Patients with a higher risk of death had a different epidemiological profile when compared with patients who recovered from SARI, like older age, Black, Indigenous, and multiracial background races, low educational level, residence in a flu outbreak region, need for intensive care unit and need for mechanical ventilatory support.

A social identity analysis of how pay inequality divides the workplace

The present research examines why organizations with more unequal pay structures have been found to be characterized by a range of negative workplace outcomes. Drawing on the social identity approach, we propose that higher pay disparity can increase the comparative fit of pay categories whereby the organizational “haves” (the highest paid employees) and “have nots” (the lowest paid employees) are more likely to be categorized into distinct social groups. In turn, this can lead to poorer organizational functioning. In two studies, a field survey ( N = 413) and an experiment ( N = 286), we found that higher pay inequality increased the comparative fit of pay categories, which, in turn, was associated with lower superordinate (organizational) identification, higher perceived workplace conflict, higher leader toxicity, and lower perceptions of identity leadership (i.e., a leader who creates a sense of shared identity in the organization). Our research provides novel insights into how higher inequality affects employees’ categorization processes, thereby creating a psychological divide and contributing to organizational dysfunction.

‘A small leap for disabled man’: the athlete-led evolution of the sports wheelchair and adaptive sports

ABSTRACT The history of the sporting wheelchair demonstrates that wheelchair athletes and non-disabled medical professionals – two distinct social groups as defined by the Social Construction of Technology – held different interpretations of wheelchair sport and technology, and their purpose. Originating as a form of rehabilitation, wheelchairs and wheelchair sport were once interpreted solely within the medical realm, resulting in restricted technical development for sporting wheelchairs due to concerns around user safety. Wheelchair athletes, however, adapted their equipment in resistance of medicalised rules, based on their reinterpretation of the technology and desire to advance wheelchair-based sports beyond the institution, legitimising technical innovation as a site of agency for disabled athletes. In doing so, the functionality and form of wheelchairs evolved, facilitating the creation of specialised, sport-specific wheelchairs, such as the basketball wheelchair and racing wheelchair. In response to this, the rules of these sports were altered, stabilising the athletes’ interpretation of wheelchair technology as sporting devices, and wheelchair sport as elite competition.