Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction

What if disability isn′t a problem but a resource? This updated edition of a classic text in the field of disability studies interrogates the commonly held view that disability is something that needs to be ′cured′ or ′eradicated′. It shows us how disability can challenge our thinking and help us to imagine a more socially just society, offering an engaging introduction to a diverse and globally expanding subject. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this text will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers across the social sciences. Making the case that disability is much more than just impairment, this book uncovers the ways in which disabled people are challenging discrimination and marginalisation. Ranging across topics such as health, activism and education, this book asks questions about the ways in which society tends to understand disability and offers alternative explanations that are more exciting, radical and transformative.

Dan Goodley is based at the Research Institute for Health and Social Change and Manchester Metropolitan University. He has has written widely in both qualitative research and disability studies over the years. He′s the author of Families with Disabled Children (Palgrave, 2008) and Researching Life Stories Method (Routledge, 2004), the editor of Disability and Psychology (Palgrave, 2005) and Another Disability Studies Reader (Garant, 2005), and has published numerous articles in journals, from the Journal of Cultural and Literary Disability Studies and Disability & Society, to Discourse and International Journal of Social Research Methodology.