Passionate, engaging and challenging, this second edition of the ground-breaking Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction is a contemporary introduction to this diverse and complex field.
Taking an interdisciplinary and critical approach, the book:
- examines a diverse range of theories and perspectives and engages with current debates in the field
- explores key areas of analysis, with chapters devoted to the individual, society, community and education
- applies a global perspective encompassing examples from the UK, Australia, Scandinavia, the US, and Canada.
Encouraging and stimulating readers using thought-provoking questions, exercises and activities, Disability Studies is a rich and rewarding read for students and researchers engaging with disability across the social sciences.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Introducing a new edition
Beginnings: Conceptualising disability in a global world
Politics: Key debates and contestations in disability studies
Differences: Disability, gender, race, sexuality and social class
Society: Towards a sociology of disability
Individuals: The psychological manufacture of the disabled individual
Subjectivity: Finding critical psychologies of disability
Discourse: Exposing the constitution of dis/ability and impairment
Community: A DisHuman analysis of life, labour and activism
Education: Challenging neoliberal-ableist education through critical pedagogy
Futures: Four approaches and three key themes of critical disability studies
References
About the Author :
Dan Goodley is Professor of Disability Studies and Education at the University of Sheffield and co-director of iHuman: an interdisciplinary institute for the study of the human. Previously he has worked at the University of Leeds and Manchester Metropolitan University. He has published numerous books and articles associated with critical disability studies including Self-advocacy in the Lives of People with learning disabilities (Open University Press, 2000), Disability Studies (Routledge, 2016, second edition), Disability Studies (Sage, 2014) and Disability and Other Human Questions (Emerald, 2020). He is currently the principal investigator on a major six year pan-national programme of disability, health and science research, funded by a Wellcome Trust Discretionary Award entitled Disability Matters (2023 - 2029). He is an avid fan of Nottingham Forest football club, cake, sewing and Sleaford Mods (possibly in that order).
Review :
In these 10 updated chapters, Dan Goodley creates and maintains a balanced space for theoretical foundations, passionate reflections, and direct actions. As a student, the breadth of considerations posed throughout Disability Studies is challenging in a way that pushes for deeper understanding, while the encyclopedic references offer a guided glimpse further into the rabbit hole. Because of its expansive research, further thinking points after each chapter, and use of a wide range of interdisciplinary authors as allies, Disability Studies will quickly become an underlined, highlighted, scribbled-in, dog-eared go-to book.
Dan Goodley’s updated Disability Studies delivers challenging, exciting and robust content. Almost conversational in style, the delivery of key ideas, theories and concepts in the subject area are applied in a meaningful way to create an engaging and comprehensive introduction to the subject suitable for students of multiple disciplines.
Dan Goodley provides a lucid and comprehensive introduction to a diverse and globally expanding field, updating a work that is already essential reading, and further solidifying his position as a key figure in critical Disability Studies.
Dan Goodley’s second edition is as engaging, enthusiastic and readable as the first edition. I love the way he looks at the depth of both theory as well as praxis. He never forgets to weave Individual subjectivities in a contextualised way, which to me is simply stunning. He bridges the gap between the Global North and South, and creates a possibility for meaningful conversations. Diverse and complex, the interdisciplinary character of Disability Studies will be a treat for the students as well as faculty.
Incisive, accessible, and deeply relevant to the social and political concerns of the 21st century, Goodley′s updated interdisciplinary introduction to the field of disability studies is a pedagogical gift. By inviting us to think about disability as a category that is both discursive and material – and thus decidedly cultural – Goodley has crafted an essential tool for teaching and learning about the question of the human.
This is clearly an important new book, drawing together literature from around the globe and therefore highlighting important cultural, political and educational concepts within the field of disability studies. (It is) A very good and concise introduction to the field, more suited to post-graduate students, perhaps those carrying out their own research within the field of disabilities or those experienced and leading within disability practice.
For me it was a call for self-reflection and awareness, it compiles overarching research and advice which I hope generates action towards making communities and schools more supportive and welcoming.
