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The Politics of Disability Identity

This project aims to provide knowledge about the politics of disability identity that will help counter the mechanisms of marginalization. Jan Grue is the Principal Investigator.

Disability symbols

Photo: Colourbox.com

About the project

Disability is one of the clearest predictors of social marginalization and an enduring problem for global sustainable development. Although disability in recent decades has become enshrined in the framework and discourse of human rights, progress has been slow or absent in socioeconomic terms. 

There is a gap between rhetoric and results in policy: Disability still correlates with poverty, low levels of education and employment, and relatively poorer life outcomes in affluent as well as less affluent societies. 

We therefore ask whether current political, legal and cultural understandings of disability amount to a misrecognition that actually hinders material progress.

Objectives

The primary objective is to provide knowledge about the politics of disability identity that will help counter the mechanisms of marginalization.

The secondary objectives are to investigate:

• how disability is normatively framed in the fields of education, employment, culture, and the public sphere,
• what characterizes the relative progress of different groups of people with disabilities in these fields, and
• how normative framings enable or hinder progress for different groups of people with disabilities. 

Research team

  • Principal Investigator Associate Professor Jan Grue, the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, UiO
  • Associate Professor Luca Tateo, the Department of Special Needs Education, UiO
  • Associate Professor Alexi Gugushvili, the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, UiO
  • Senior Researcher Halvor Hanish, AFI, Oslo Metropolitan University
  • Senior Researcher Jon Erik Finnvold, NOVA,  Oslo Metropolitan University
  • Senior Researcher Therese Dokken, NOVA, Oslo Metropolitan University
  • Doctoral Research Fellow, Marte Oppedal Vale, the Department of Special Needs Education, UiO

International advisory board

  • Susan Schweik, UC Berkeley
  • Don Kulick, Uppsala University
  • Tom Shakespeare, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Project period

1 August 2021 - 31 July 2025

Financing

The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway (SAMKUL). The total grant is NOK 11.968.000. 

Publications

  • Grue, Jan (2023). The double bind of social legitimacy: On disability, the sick role, and invisible work. Sociology of Health and Illness. ISSN 0141-9889. 46(1), p. 78–94. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13692. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wee, Hana Lijun; Karkkulainen, Evelyn A. & Tateo, Luca (2023). Experiences of Epistemic Injustice among Minority Language Students Aged 6–16 in the Nordics: A Literature Review. Education Sciences. ISSN 2227-7102. 13(4). doi: 10.3390/educsci13040367. Full text in Research Archive
  • Grue, Jan & Alnes, Silje (2023). Disability and employability: A case study of the rhetoric of neoliberal inclusionism. In Hughes, Jessica & Bartesaghi, Mariaelena (Ed.), Disability in Dialogue. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISSN 9789027214089. p. 49–66. doi: 10.1075/ds.33.03gru.
  • Grue, Jan (2023). Rethinking utopia : Posthumanism, transhumanism, and disability. In Lid, Inger Marie; Rembis, Micheal & Steinfeld, Edward (Ed.), Rethinking Disability and Human Rights : Participation, Equality and Citizenship . Routledge. ISSN 978-0-367-51174-6. p. 45–59. doi: 10.4324/9781003052708.
  • Grue, Jan (2023). The CRPD and the economic model of disability: undue burdens and invisible work. Disability & Society. ISSN 0968-7599. p. 1–17. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2023.2255734. Full text in Research Archive
  • Gugushvili, Alexi; Dokken, Therese; Grue, Jan & Finnvold, Jon Erik (2023). Early-life impairments, chronic health conditions, and income mobility. British Journal of Sociology. ISSN 0007-1315. 75(1), p. 56–64. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.13064. Full text in Research Archive
  • Gugushvili, Alexi; Grue, Jan; Dokken, Therese & Finnvold, Jon Erik (2023). No evidence that social-democratic welfare states equalize valued outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Social Science and Medicine. ISSN 0277-9536. 339. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116361. Full text in Research Archive
  • Grue, Jan (2022). The Death of Others. On the Narrative Rhetoric of Neoliberal Thanatopolitics. Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ). ISSN 1041-5718. 42(1). doi: 10.18061/dsq.v42i1.7799. Full text in Research Archive
  • Grue, Jan (2022). Material Bodies, Bodies of Narrative. English language notes. ISSN 0013-8282. 60(2), p. 177–179. doi: 10.1215/00138282-9890857.
  • Silva Filho, Waldomiro; Dazzani, Virginia; Tateo, Luca; Gottschalk Sukerman Barreto, Rodrigo & Marsico, Giuseppina (2022). He Knows, She Doesn’t? Epistemic Inequality in a Developmental Perspective. Review of General Psychology. ISSN 1089-2680. doi: 10.1177/10892680221143079. Full text in Research Archive
  • Grue, Jan (2022). Funksjonshemning - der kropp møter samfunn. In Frønes, Ivar & Kjølsrød, Lise (Ed.), Det norske samfunn - Bind 3. Gyldendal Akademisk. ISSN 9788205572324. p. 153–175.

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Published July 2, 2021 1:55 PM - Last modified Jan. 8, 2024 8:04 AM

Contact

Jan Grue

Principal Investigator 

Participants

Detailed list of participants