Research methods and practices of doing disability studies in the global south

Abstract

Disability studies has long been based primarily on theories and practices in the global North also in the Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research. Today there is an increase in disability research conducted in the global South. Yet, many studies continue to frame data using already existing concepts, debates and research strategies from the global North, focusing less on building theory situated in the global South. The reliance on theories developed in the global North may reinforce the epistemic vulnerability of disability studies in the global South. As disability studies as a whole is concerned with the politics of voice, in this special section, therefore, we explicitly aimed at triggering critical discussion on how to develop research methods and practices in contexts outside the global North. The four papers in this section challenge us and our epistemological and methodological norms towards more nuanced approaches in each research context. The lessons to be learned from these papers go beyond issues in the global South. The great heterogeneity of disability and its contexts, as well as its evolving nature, mean that we must all think deeply about interconnectedness, relationality, and continuity of disability with other phenomenon across different time and space. The global perspective to disability simultaneously teaches us the global structures of inequalities beyond country borders.