Disability Worlds

Abstract

Disability is a profoundly relational category, shaped by social conditions that exclude full participation in society. What counts as an impairment in different sociocultural settings is highly variable. Recently, new approaches by disability scholars and activists show that disability is not simply lodged in the body, but created by the social and material conditions that “dis-able” the full participation of those considered atypical. Historically, anthropological studies of disability were often intellectually segregated, considered the province of those in medical and applied anthropology. We show the growing incorporation of disability in the discipline on its own terms by bringing in the social, activist, reflexive, experiential, narrative, and phenomenological dimensions of living with particular impairments. We imagine a broad future for critical anthropological studies of disability and argue that as a universal aspect of human life this topic should be foundational to the field.

Disability, Participation and Apparel throughout the Life Course

“…Research has shown, for example, that clothing has social and aesthetic significance for people with dementia, and selection of apparel consistent with styles preferred in the past may be one way for caretakers to cope with caring for elderly relatives (Buse and Twigg 2015). At all ages, disability can threaten perceived values of independence and identity, especially because individuals may easily become disabled at any time (Ginsburg and Rapp 2013;Reid-Cunningham 2009). …”

Unfinished

“…112 From clinics and courtrooms in Brazil where medical technologies and shifting legal configurations offer new possibilities for gender-affirming care, 113 to online platforms where new forms of community and solidarity emerge for those previously excluded from the mainstream public sphere, technology is never only controlling. 114 Recent work by Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp in the anthropology of disability, 115 for example, highlights how digital technologies create "counterdiscursive sites of repre sen ta tion" for marginalized subjects, providing unexpected opportunities for " people with disabilities to engage in a first-person discussion of their world and experiences. " 116 In other words, people are actively deploying new technologies for their own ends, waging politics and challenging entrenched assumptions.…”

Narrativas sobre síndrome de Down no Festival Internacional de Filmes sobre Deficiência Assim Vivemos

“…Desse modo, o luto experienciado e narrado é individual, mas também coletivo, propiciando um processo de criação que, ao escavar as memórias, permite fabular para dar sentido; permite desarticular narrativas dominantes para construir novas. Esses novos rearranjos nas relações e na produção de narrativas familiares a partir da ocorrência da deficiência compõem o que Ginsburg e Rapp 19 denominam de novos imaginários de parentesco. O filme Diagnóstico 20 exemplifica este primeiro núcleo narrativo.…”