Las infraestructuras de cuidado en tiempos de pandemia. De la crisis sanitaria a la emergencia de lo social

Tensions and Escapes in Independent Living Infrastructures for People With Disabilities Under COVID-19

“…This situation, and the accompanying health recommendations and readjustments introduced by care services, led to a greater social perception of certain groups’ vulnerability and exposure to risk. In many cases, this was assumed and claimed by different actors in the disability field during the first wave of the pandemic, enabling the legitimization of public health measures and configuring people with disabilities as more vulnerable and exposed to risk (García-Santesmases Fernández et al, 2022). This created a tension between the need to medicalize care for the sake of life defined in biological terms and with no attributes—the Agambian nuda vida (Agamben, 1998)— and the need to pursue a dignified life that maintained the social, rights, and practices of autonomy of people with disabilities.…”

“…The discourses of vulnerability and risk mentioned in the introduction have caused people with disabilities to be considered especially vulnerable to COVID-19 (García-Santesmases Fernández et al, 2022). This, together with the configuration of the pandemic as a medical emergency that has assumed life without attributes (Agamben, 1998) as the only one to be saved, has disarticulated some of the ways of sustaining users’ autonomy, as we have seen in both cases.…”