‘There Is Nothing Wrong with Me’: The Materialisation of Disability in Sheltered Employment

Gemma L Bend and Vincenza Priola
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Gemma L Bend: University of Huddersfield, UK
Vincenza Priola: The Open University, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2023, vol. 37, issue 3, 645-664

Abstract: This article explores the lived experiences of disabled men and women who work in sheltered employment. Specifically, it analyses how the entanglement of sociomaterial practices affects disabled workers’ co-constructions of work and disability. Theoretically grounded in posthumanist performativity theory, the article shows how embodied employment experiences within organisational spaces contribute to the materialisation of disability. Findings emerged from ethnographic participant observations and interviews with management and workers at a sheltered workshop. The data highlight how the entanglement of bodies, space, objects and discourses affects materialisations of disability in ways that appear more inclusive than in mainstream employment. However, these sociomaterial practices remain embedded in a productivity-oriented work logic.

Keywords: disability; new materialism; posthumanist performativity; sheltered employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:3:p:645-664

DOI: 10.1177/09500170211034762

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