Chapter 2 Critical Disability Studies: Sketches from Poland and the UK
In: Disability and Dissensus: Strategies of Disability Representation and Inclusion in Contemporary CultureSearch for other papers by Dan Goodley in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Marek Mackiewicz-Ziccardi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
The chapter offers a comprehensible and accessible introduction to Critical Disability Studies. In the first part, Dan Goodley outlines the main tenets of the discipline and its major theories. Starting from the basic notion of criticality, he examines the foundational work of such scholars as: Vic Finkelstein, Jenny Morris, Michael Oliver, Sharon L. Snyder and David T. Mitchell, Rod Michalko, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Robert McRuer, and Fiona Kumari Campbell. The second part of the chapter presents Marek Mackiewicz-Ziccardi’s autoethnographic, personal response to this interdisciplinary field of activism and research. It is closely based on the conversations between the accomplished disability scholar and the young academic and activist with cerebral palsy, both of whom research disability studies, but who come from two essentially different backgrounds: British and Polish. In this way, the chapter critically explores the complexities of cds and the tensions within it, highlighting the downsides of the social model of disability and the potential of crip theory and activism to shake the foundations of the fossilized social and cultural status quo.