Impairment: Social Construction, Non-Inevitability, and Choice.
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The Social Model of Disability is the predominant framework within the social sciences and humanities. Even though it has been criticized, including by some disabled individuals, for "oversocializing" disability and neglecting the causal role of impairment in the disadvantages experienced by disabled people, it is still widely accepted. Some scholars even advance a more radical argument: not only is disability a social construct, but impairment itself has no objective basis and, instead, is a product of contingent socio-historical forces and prejudices. I will first outline the critique of the Social Model of Disability and then address the claim that impairment is socially constructed. Finally, I explore the implications of this debate for the assertion that if an entity is socially constructed, it is not inevitable, and can be subject to choice. |
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