Disability and the Making of Place

This edited collection advances critical scholarship about the complex interrelationships between disability and place. Developing theorising around place-making as a relational, everyday practice, it draws on disabled people’s lived experiences to explore the myriad ways in which they encounter, negotiate, and (re)make place. Offering novel insights drawn from research in eight countries, and refracted through diverse experiences of impairment, disability and embodiment, the text draws attention to everyday place-making as a series of performances, feelings, narratives and tactics through which disabled people navigate, occupy and proactively take place. Using a diverse array of methodological approaches, chapters shed light on the embodied experiences and meanings of disability as they are worked out in place. At its heart, this collection argues for a fundamental rethinking of place to foster a radical openness to difference, where disabled people can build meaningful lives, valued social identities and a sense of belonging. Disability and the Making of Place will be of interest to scholars and students within disability studies, human geography, sociology, urban studies, and the social sciences more broadly.