No abstract

Waiting is a part of everyday life. It is often characterised by its banality: its quotidian nature. Time spent waiting can be seen as boring, wasted, and at times painful or distressing, or conversely hopeful or full of potential. The experience of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) reveals a population for whom (limited) time has a significant impact on quality of life. This paper will argue that waiting, for people with MND, exemplifies the relationship between time, power and agency. In so doing we can better conceptualise the manifold ways in which time and waiting are experienced through choosing to wait, enforced waiting and waiting when time is known to be ‘running out’. Through a sociological analysis of multiple forms of waiting three key themes emerged that characterised waiting as powerlessness; emotional (as a form of production), and; alternating as an experience between patience and endurance. This paper challenges the passivity, universality and ambivalence ascribed to waiting and instead argues that waiting affects the ‘time left’ for people with MND. It also offers up a lens through which to view time through the multiple textures and tensions of waiting produced through chronic illness.

This article explores the complex relationship between citizenship, bodies and toileting through the experiences of disabled people. By examining the toiletscapes that disabled people must navigate, the impact that inaccessible toilets have on self and personhood and the hidden inequalities produced through these spaces, we can come to understand disabled people’s sense of (non)belonging. At the centre of this article is a focus on the socio-political dualisms that locate disabled people at the margins of everyday citizenship. Through a feminist phenomenological analysis the toilet and toileting bring to the fore how (non)belonging is felt. Toilet(ing), then, problematises the nature of so-called ‘private’ and ‘public’ spaces and by engaging bodily waste we come to understand citizenship through dirt.

People with learning disabilities in England and Scotland have experienced an increased risk of illness and death during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on data of a longitudinal qualitative study with 71 disabled people and 31 disability organisations, this article examines the experiences of 24 people with learning disabilities in England and Scotland during the pandemic, reflecting on what rendered them vulnerable and placed them at risk. Qualitative interviews were conducted with participants and key informants at two timepoints; June–August 2020 and February–April 2021. Findings emerged across four key themes: failure to plan for the needs of people with learning disabilities; the suspension and removal of social care; the impact of the pandemic on people’s everyday routines; and lack of vaccine prioritisation. The inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities in this study are not particular to the pandemic. We explore the findings in the context of theoretical frameworks of vulnerability, including Fineman’s conceptualisation of a ‘vulnerability paradigm’. We conclude that the structured marginalisation of people with disabilities, entrenched by government action and inaction, have created and exacerbated their vulnerability. Structures, policies and action must change.