1. d.goodley@sheffield.ac.uk & k.runswick-cole@mmu.ac.uk
Big Society? Disabled People with Learning Disabilities and Civil Society
This research project is a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University; The University of Sheffield; The University of Bristol and Northumbria University as well as SpeakUp; Mencap; Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities; Pathways Associates; Manchester Learning Disability Partnership and Independent Living Advisors Pete Crane, Wendy Crane, Max Neill & Helen Smith
We ask: how are people with learning disabilities faring in a time of Big Society?
For more details, please visit:
Briefing Card 2:
Rethinking labour through disability
Big Society? Disabled People with Learning Disabilities & Civil Society
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2. Disability, Austerity & Slow Death
We found that:
In time of austerity (spending cuts) we are told to ‘make do and mend’;
We live in a time when people who are ‘able’ to ‘work hard’ are valued most; we call this ‘neo-liberal ableism’;
In a time of cuts, many people are forced to work very hard; Lauren Berlant calls this ‘slow death’;
But the cuts that affect disabled people mean that they might die more quickly;
Some types of work are valued more highly than others. For example, being a lawyer is paid more highly than being a carer.
We suggest that:
Dis/ability is a good place to start thinking about how we might labour (work) differently.
Goodley, D., Lawthom, R. and Runswick-Cole, K. (2014) Dis/ability and austerity: beyond work
and slow death, Disability & Society 29 (6):