Disability and difference in global contexts: enabling a transformative body politic

Abstract

Reviews the book, Disability and Difference in Global Contexts: Enabling a Transformative Body Politic by Nirmala Erevelles (2011). Erevelles' primary argument is that disability is socially produced by the violence inherent within transnational capitalism. Utilizing a historical-materialist perspective, she seeks to situate disability as an 'historical event.' She sees a tension existing between theorists of the body versus political economy, but seeks a rapprochement between these two perspectives by beginning her analysis of political economy with the body. Arguing against the idea that impairments are the result of natural events, Erevelles uses the concept of 'disability as becoming' to approach the way economic and material conditions often produce impairment. Disability and Difference in Global Contexts is primarily a theoretical work. However, one section does include two narratives, which are intended to demonstrate how race, class and disability intersect with each other. The first narrative begins in 1908 and tells the story of Junius Wilson, a Black and deaf man who spent most of his life institutionalized. The second narrative describes the experiences of a young African American girl with learning disabilities. Erevelles' perspective on intersectionality is detailed and insightful. The discussion of race as it relates to other axes of oppression is excellent, and well above par when compared with some other works that have been produced within the field of disability studies. Disability and Difference in Global Contexts provokes a number of important theoretical and social questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).