Missing Pieces: Engaging Sociology of Disability in Medical Sociology

Abstract

Medical sociologists and sociologists of disability study similar topics but, because of competing or conflicting theoretical paradigms, tend to arrive at different conclusions, engage with different audiences, and pursue different directions for social change. Despite diverging trajectories over the past 20 years, however, there remains clear potential overlap between both subfields in the study of disability and untapped opportunities for cross-fertilization. Our purpose here is to place these literatures in conversation with each other. Toward this end, we identify major themes in the last 20 years of medical sociology scholarship, gaps with regard to disability in those themes, and possibilities (including methodologies) we see at the intersection of medical sociology and the sociology of disability that could address these gaps.

Stressors associated with the COVID‐19 pandemic, disability, and mental health: Considerations from the Intermountain West

“…The problem is just not there' (Blumer, 1971, p. 301-302). This work further supports the need to treat the marginalization of people with disabilities as a social problem with health consequences requiring further and sustained attention Mauldin & Brown, 2021). That is, efforts to meaningfully address pandemic-related stressors, and the constraints they pose for the life experiences and opportunities of people with disabilities, must confront enduring forms of marginalization and the feelings of personal devaluation or distress they engender.…”

“…To appreciate this possibility-and, notably, to evaluate itrequires a categorical understanding of disability that is not yet well-integrated into stress and health disparities research (for a discussion, see Mauldin & Brown, 2021). It is now widely accepted in the stress and health literature that the disablement process is iterative and importantly influenced by 'extra-individual factors' including stressor exposure (Verbrugge & Jette, 1994, p. 4).…”

“…Extending this consideration, sociology of disability or disability studies scholarship conceptualizes disability as an axis of inequality, thus directing attention to the role of power structures and positionality in shaping the social disadvantages associated with disability Mauldin & Brown, 2021;Naples et al, 2019). From this perspective, people with disabilities constitute a socially marginalized or oppressed group because of norms and ideologies regarding people's bodies and minds (Shakespeare, 2006) that disproportionately expose them to trauma and other negative life events (Brown, 2017).…”

Affect, dis/ability and the pandemic

“…Medical sociology has tended to talk around rather than about disability (preferring analyses in terms of social deviance) and critical disability studies situating understandings in terms of social oppression (very much influenced by social and materialist models of disability). While more contemporary scholarship has brought together the two perspectives (e.g, Mauldin & Lewis, 2021;Thomas, 2021) we note that there are often tensions between these two fields of scholarship. In particular, critical disability studies occupy a liminal space between academia/ activist and theory/praxis.…”

COVID-19 and changes in college student educational expectations and health by disability status

“…In this article, we shift attention away from traditional dimensions of stratification and toward an additional axis of inequality that is particularly relevant to college students: disability status. Although disability status can be conceptualized as an individual characteristic, medical sociologists and sociologists of disability more often view it as a social characteristic resulting from physical, economic, and social barriers that restrict access to valued goods and experiences ( Chennat, 2019 ; Jenkins, 1991 ; Mauldin, & Brown, 2021 ; Naples, Mauldin and Dillaway 2019 ; Shifrer & Frederick, 2019 ). This conceptualization positions disability status alongside race/ethnicity, class, and gender as a key dimension of stratification (see, e.g.,Maroto, et al 2019; Mauldin, & Brown, 2021 ; Shandra 2018; Shifrer & Frederick, 2019 ).…”