Dis-Equality: Exploring the Juxtaposition of Disability and Equality

Bronagh Byrne
Additional contact information
Bronagh Byrne: School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

Social Inclusion, 2018, vol. 6, issue 1, 9-17

Abstract: The (in)equality issues facing disabled people are extensive and long-enduring. The way(s) in which equality is conceptualised has important consequences for understandings of disability. The ambiguity of what I call dis-equality theory is two-fold; the apparent failure of mainstream equality theorising in, firstly, embracing disability concepts at all, and secondly, in fully incorporating the logistics of disability, particularly in relation to the social construction of such. Practices of institutional and more complex forms of discrimination are part of those deeper structures of domination and oppression which maintain disabled people in positions of disadvantage. Everyday practices, in the ‘ordinary order of things’ (Bourdieu, 2000), continue to be misrecognised as natural and taken for granted. This article critically explores the complexity of dis-equality theorising utilising a Bourdieusian lens which explicitly incorporates complex and subtle forms of discrimination, and by examining the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ approach to equality. I argue that the way forward for dis-equality theorising in today’s rights based era must be one that considers the nuances of the ‘rules of the game’ (Young, 1990) if it is to be effective in challenging the inequalities to which disabled people have long been subject.

Keywords: Bourdieu; disability; dis-equality; discrimination; equality; rights; UNCRPD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/1161 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v6:y:2018:i:1:p:9-17

DOI: 10.17645/si.v6i1.1161

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().