The power of Awkwardness - Creating the capacity to live with difference

This article focuses on creating a capacity to live with differences. It is a philosophical and pedagogical text about the problems and possibilities that may occur when aiming to live together despite differences. We focus on the challenge of living with people with intellectual disabilities of more severe degrees and address the issue of socializing when differences seem difficult to handle. We want to show that the differences might not be as great as we are inclined to think. People, whatever the ability, want many of the same basic things. We want to be taken seriously, we want friendships, and we want to make our own decisions.A difficult obstacle is the social phenomenon of awkwardness. This often emerges when different people meet. On one hand, these awkward encounters may have negative outcomes, resulting in exclusion. However, awkwardness also contains possibilities. The moment of awkwardness identifies where it can be useful to develop new strategies to facilitate change. As part of this analysis, we will show how habits can get in the way of interaction and how knowingness and playfulness can open for socialization. Finally, we explore strategies and tools that could contribute to bridging the gap.