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Disability/Postmodernity: Embodying Disability Theory

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This was one of the first books in disability studies to seriously attempt to engage with postmodern social theory. Like all edited collections, it can be somewhat patchy... but some of the contributions are outstanding.

It largely engages with debates in Britain about the social model of disability (which separates impairment from disability) and suggests that a more nuanced approach is necessary.

For those in disability studies, there are some very useful chapters... for those outside academia, less so.

For those of you interested in disability studies, here's some more information:

The (British) social model of disability moved the focus of disability studies away from what is "wrong" with a disabled person's mind/body/senses etc onto the disabling barriers in society. But the social model still left a lot of personal and theoretical questions largely unexplored. For instance, it didn't really grapple with the question of identity in any serious way. And it didn't really engage with contemporary postmodernist thinking. This edited collection, which examines a range of disabilities, goes some way towards suggesting how a more serious engagement with theories like postmodernism might be done. A pretty heavily theoretical topic, one that might be interesting for graduate students especially.