Disability Politics and Theory, a historical exploration of the concept of disability, covers the late nineteenth century to the present, introducing the main models of disability theory and politics: eugenics, medicalization, rehabilitation, charity, rights and social and disability justice.

A.J. Withers examines when, how and why new categories of disability are created and describes how capitalism benefits from and enforces disabled people’s oppression. Critiquing the currently dominant social model of disability, this book offers an alternative. The radical framework Withers puts forward draws from schools of radical thought, particularly feminism and critical race theory, to emphasize the role of interlocking oppressions in the marginalization of disabled people and the importance of addressing disability both independently and in conjunction with other oppressions.

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Intertwining theoretical and historical analysis with personal experience, this book is a poignant portrayal of disabled people in Canada and the U.S. - and a call for social and economic justice.

This revised and expanded edition includes a new chapter on the rehabilitation model, expands the discussion of eugenics, and adds the context of the growth of the disability justice movement, Black Lives Matter, calls for defunding the police, decolonial and Indigenous land protection struggles, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

For an accessible reading guide and glossary to this book, please click here

Teaching guide available. Please email examrequest@fernpub.ca for more details.

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A. J. Withers organized with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty for over 20 years, including as a paid organizer.

They are the author of Fight to Win: Inside Poor People’s Organizing, A Violent History of Benevolence: Interlocking Oppression in the Moral Economies of Social Working (with Chris Chapman) and Disability Politics and Theory and numerous other articles and book chapters. They are the Ruth Wynn Woodward Jr. Chair in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University.

Format	Paperback
Pages	256
Year Published	2024

Books

Disability Politics and Theory, Revised and Expanded Edition

Getting Started

Lost in a sea of vibration?

Getting Started

Lost in a sea of vibration?

Lost in a sea  of vibration?

Lost in a sea  of vibration?