1st Edition

Towards Enabling Geographies ‘Disabled’ Bodies and Minds in Society and Space

By Edward Hall, Vera Chouinard Copyright 2010
    286 Pages
    by Routledge

    286 Pages
    by Routledge

    Over the past 15 years, geography has made many significant contributions to our understanding of disabled people's identities, lives, and place in society and space. 'Towards Enabling Geographies' brings together leading scholars to showcase the 'second wave' of geographical studies concerned with disability and embodied differences. This area has broadened and challenged conventional boundaries of 'disability', expanding the kinds of embodied differences considered, while continuing to grapple with important challenges such as policy relevance and the use of more inclusionary research approaches. This book demonstrates the value of a spatial conceptualization of disability and disablement to a broader social science audience, whilst examining how this conceptualization can be further developed and refined.

    Contents: Preface; Introduction: towards enabling geographies, Vera Chouinard, Edward Hall and Robert Wilton; Disability, embodiment and the meaning of the home, Rob Imrie; Women's changing experiences of the home and life inside it after becoming chronically ill, Valorie A Crooks; Enabling cultures of dis/order online, Joyce Davidson and Hester Parr; 'It's my umbilical cord to the world ... the internet': d/deaf and hard of hearing people's information and communication practices, Tracey Skelton and Gill Valentine; The geographies of interdependence in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, Andrew Power; 563 miles: a matter of long-distance caring by siblings of siblings with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Deborah Metzel; Young people with socio-emotional differences: theorising disability and destabilising socio-emotional norms, Louise Holt; Evaluating workfare: disability, policy and the role of geography, Claire Edwards; Placing little people: dwarfism and the geographies of everyday life, Robert J. Kruse II; The disabling affects of fat: the emotional and material geographies of some women who live in Hamilton, New Zealand, Robyn Longhurst; Embodied ageing in place: what does it mean to grow old?, Janine L. Wiles and Ruth E.S. Allen; Biometric geographies, mobility and disability: biologies of culpability and the biologised spaces of (post)modernity, Joanne Maddern and Emma Stewart; Geographies of disability: reflections on new body knowledges, Isabel Dyck; Index.

    Biography

    Vera Chouinard, Professor, School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Canada, Dr. Edward Hall, Geography, School of Social and Environmental Sciences, University of Dundee, UK and Robert Wilton, McMaster University, Canada.

    'This edited collection showcases some of the most innovative work currently being undertaken in the "second wave" of geographies of disability. Its engagement with other bodies of difference broadens and deepens our understanding of disability; emphasising the importance of spatially infused interpretations of embodiment and disability; the growing importance of technology in disabled people’s lives; and the ever important issues of policy and politics.' Christine Milligan, Lancaster University, UK 'The editors are to be congratulated on this rich and rewarding collection that reflects the place of disability as a deepening stream within geographical inquiry.' Robin Kearns, The University of Auckland, New Zealand 'This edited collection brings together a range of authors from within and beyond Geography to discuss research on the socio-spatial and embodies nature of disablement. It is a timely and much needed addition to the Geographies of Disability literature...I would recommend this collection to students and academics who want an overview of the current state of scholarship on Geographies of Disability from a critical/cultural perspective.' Area '... this collection would certainly be a valuable and relevant resource for others working in the health and disability fields. As a health services researcher, I found the collection of research to be a very insightful introduction to the unique perspectives of geographers on the subject of disability...' New Zealand Geographer