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.          

Table of Contents:
Part 1 - Contextualising Disability Chapter 1 - Understanding Disability Chapter 2 - Disability Studies Chapter 3 - Critical Disability Studies Chapter 4 - Disability and Society Chapter 5 - Researching Disability Part 2 - Investigating Disability Chapter 6 - Disability and Intersectionality Chapter 7 - Disability and Health Chapter 8- Disability Activism Chapter 9 - Disability Online Chapter 10 - Disability and Education Chapter 11 - Conclusion

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 :
From disability studies to critical disability studies and beyond, this 3rd edition of the now classic text demonstrates Prof Goodley’s sustained input and significance in the field.  It is quite simply essential reading for students in disability studies and related subjects. This substantially revised 3rd edition of a much used and highly valued core text is timely and forward looking. It engages generously with the ideas of Disability Studies, providing an accessible review of the field and raising the questions it needs to grapple with. As Goodley reminds us, we may start with disability but we never end with it, this book provides great value to scholars – old and new – of Disability Studies and beyond.