I have been interested in the discussions around this matter. I think
that there are three competing discourses going on here:
1. A search for definitions of "disability" that satifsy the needs of
governments who provide commodified welfare assistance. These
definitions are always problematic because they are framed around
differentiating the "deserving poor" from the "undeserving poor".
Discussions framed around this discourse often highlight the ways
that some people, rather than others, are relatively disadvantaged
because of the workings of the commodified welfare system.
2. A negotiation and contestation of identity politics (around
defining who is/ who is not "disabled") which raises the important
issue of people who are left out of the disabled / nondisabled
binary. There are plenty of groups who sit uneasily in relation to
this divide... we have heard in the past contributions from people
making these arguments with regard to brain injury survivors, mental
health survivors, Deaf people, people with learning difficulties,
and perhaps we can add people with chronic illness to this list.
3. A theoretical problem in some versions of the social model in
terms of grappling with the challenges of embodiment. Embodiment, as
feminist literature has shown us, is not just about impairment, or
disability. It is sometimes about neither. Embodiment is at once
sentient and social, carceral and discursive, sitting uneasily across
both the nature/nurture and the mind/body divide. Perhaps some of
the discussion around chronic illness fits in with this body of
literature.
Personally, I am moving more towards an interdisciplinary approach to
disability so that I can draw on a wide range of literature. I look
at social policy analyses when I want to critique inequities in
commodified welfare assistance, I look to Queer Theory when I want to
examine the complexities of identity politics (and the position of
people who don't fit neatly into one or another binary identity
category) and I look to feminist literature when I discuss
embodiment.
Thanks for this discussion, I've enjoyed it.
Cheers
Mark Sherry
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