‘There Is Nothing Wrong with Me’: The Materialisation of Disability in Sheltered Employment

Abstract

This article explores the lived experiences of disabled men and women who work in sheltered employment. Specifically, it analyses how the entanglement of sociomaterial practices affects disabled workers’ co-constructions of work and disability. Theoretically grounded in posthumanist performativity theory, the article shows how embodied employment experiences within organisational spaces contribute to the materialisation of disability. Findings emerged from ethnographic participant observations and interviews with management and workers at a sheltered workshop. The data highlight how the entanglement of bodies, space, objects and discourses affects materialisations of disability in ways that appear more inclusive than in mainstream employment. However, these sociomaterial practices remain embedded in a productivity-oriented work logic.

Matter and Method: The Quest for a New‐Materialist Methodology in Management Studies

“…The assemblage is central in Deleuze and Guattari's theory and refers to the integration, connection and organization of objects/subjects, qualities and concepts, and how these are arranged to provide context for their meanings (Bend and Priola, 2023). It is a sociomaterial becoming of different forces and elements (e.g.…”

Intersectionality on screen. A coloniality perspective to understand popular culture representations of intersecting oppressions at work

“…Several studies have explored how an intersectional analysis can support the understanding of experiences and subjectivities in work and organizations. This includes the experience of Muslim entrepreneurs in the Netherlands (Essers & Benschop, 2009; Essers et al., 2010); the identity of South African Indian managers (Mohamed et al., 2016); of professionals (Atewologun & Singh, 2010) and academics (Johansson & Śliwa, 2014); the realities of skilled women migrants in the Australian labor market (Ressia et al., 2017, p. 373), and of disabled workers in sheltered employment (Bend & Priola, 2018, 2021). These intersectional analyses support the understanding of how structural forms of oppressions, based on discrimination, constrain individual action and expose individuals to unfair practices.…”

When the war is over: Accounting for people with disabilities

“…However, disability scholars such as Abbas (2016) and Albrecht (1992) have criticised sheltered workshops as sites for the exploitation of people with disabilities. Recent work by Bend and Priola (2021: 13) reveals that despite managers’ efforts to ‘disrupt normative constructions of disability’, sheltered workshops continued to function within the parameters of capitalist ableism and aspired to construct the ‘ ideal worker ’ (2021: 13, italics in original). We contribute to this discussion by offering disability studies scholars an awareness of how accounting can be integral to the construction of behaviour that is consistent with the ideal of capitalist ableism.…”