Disability Praxis: The Body as a Site of Struggle

‘A masterful intervention that is particularly pertinent for an age of austerity, pandemic, and rising living costs’ Robert Chapman, author of Empire of Normality

‘A brilliant and much-needed contribution to current debates’ Ioana Cerasella Chis, University of Birmingham

‘A comprehensive analysis which also intelligently looks at how disability can fit into the modern world’ Joshua Hepple, activist, writer and disability equality trainer

The rise of the extreme right globally, the crisis of capitalism and the withdrawal of all but the most punitive arms of the state are having a disastrous impact on disabled people’s lives.

Bob Williams-Findlay offers an account of the transformative potential of disability praxis and how it relates to disabled politics and activism. He addresses different sites of struggle, showing how disabled people have advanced radical theory into the implementation of policies.

Examining the growth of the global Disabled People’s Movement during the 1960s, Williams-Findlay shows how a new social discourse emerged that shifted the focus away from seeing disability as restrictions on an individual’s body, towards understanding the impact of restrictions created by capitalist relations. He shines light on the contested definitions of disability, asking us to reconsider how different socio-political contexts produce varied understandings of social oppression and how we can play a role in transforming definitions and societies.

Bob Williams-Findlay is the founder of Birmingham Disability Rights Group and the former Chair of the national organisation BCODP. He has written in various publications on the topic of disability politics.