Lessons from the disabled people’s movement

Social movements are frequently beset by segregation. This project, however, focuses on how social movements can come together and learn from one another; in particular, how other movements might learn from the disabled people’s movement. The disabled people’s movement is often wrongly assumed to have little relevant to offer other social movements. However, we claim that the social model of disability – which draws attention to the disabling and discriminatory impacts of social structures – may be fruitfully employed to combat other areas of social injustice. In doing so, we draw on the Co-PI’s prior work developing a ‘social model of asylum’ as well as the PI’s work on collaborations between social movement groups on contentious issues.

To develop this claim, we will bring together activists from the disabled people’s movement with activists from other groups for a one-day workshop. The workshop will seek to uncover and name the differences between groups and barriers to working together, as well as assist participants to articulate shared values and agendas. The ultimate aim will be to generate new directions in which the social model might be taken. This workshop is intended as a pilot for a further series of workshops to develop the applications of the social model in different directions, to be determined during the pilot workshop. We will produce outputs (a blog post and short comment piece) from the pilot, but the work done as part of this project will also form the basis for larger grant applications to fund this series. The project will contribute both to the emerging literature on intersectional social movement, and to building a broader intersectional movement for social justice.