Worldwide, people with disabilities – especially in the Global South – are exposed to particularly high risks of poverty and exclusion (see Yeo 2001, 2005). Although the overwhelming majority of people with disabilities live in countries of the Global South, scientific or even interdisciplinary work on the problem is relatively rare in the Global North (cf. Nguyen 2018). Post-colonies such as Vietnam are intensively addressed by German and International NGOs within the context of development cooperation and inclusive development in which the so-called Social Model of Disability is very frequently highlighted and perpetuated. Postcolonial theories are contemporarily engaged in an intensive debate on how to rethink colonialism with its legacies and continuity. What does a postcolonial critique of the development discourse mean from the perspective of people with disabilities in the Global South? Which concepts of disability prevail in discourses of development policy? This paper aims to contribute to the critical analysis of the ways in which the category of disability is addressed in the discourse on development in the context of inclusive development. Thus, it aims to reveal the theoretical gaps in hegemonic knowledge on development and postulates of inclusion from an intersectional, power-critical perspective by showing the (re)production of colonial-racist and able-bodied patterns of representation inherent in the discourse on inclusive development in which the „white ‘non-disabled’ body“ (Garde 2015, p.98) remains the norm.
References
Garde, J. I. (2015): Cripping Development? Ambivalenzen “Inklusiver Entwicklung” aus crip-theoretischer Perspektive. ISBN 978-3-631-66090-4
Nguyen, X.T. (2018): Critical Disability Studies at the Edge of Global Development: Why Do We Need to Engage with Southern Theory? DOI: https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v7i1.400
Day 3 – (May 29, Sat HK/SG time)
Panel 9: Disability, Discourses, Disruptions
1:30-3:30pm HK/SG / 6:30-8:30am BST / 7:30-9:30am CEST / 1:30-3:30am EDT / 10:30pm-12:30am PDT