Hard Times and Patterns of Disability Protest 1969 – 2012: Do Economic Troughs Predict Protest Activity?

• In Event: 158 - Section on Disability and Society Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Disability and Society Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01

Abstract

The question of relationships between external events and social movement events has occupied the attention of social movements’ scholars for a long time, but they argue that grievances by themselves are not sufficient to initiate social movement activity. Rather, there are a number of general social and cultural conditions as well as conditions specific to a social movement which are hypothesized to be more likely to spur social movement mobilization and activity.

This paper examines the relationship between economic hardship, as measured by the presence of economic troughs, and disability protest activity. The unit of analysis is protest events; the data have been collected from media sources, especially newspapers, and include almost 1500 US protests. Results show little relationship between protest activity and economic troughs. There is more relationship between protest activity and disability-related legal successes, protest successes, and the development of multiple disability, single issue social movement organizations than there appears to be with what is assumed to represent economic hardship. The discussion addresses the possibility that people with disabilities, although averaging lower in the socio-economic status hierarchy, may be less susceptible to the ups and downs of economic cycles. Additionally, it discusses why other variables should be more strongly related to disability movement mobilization than presumed economic hardship would be, and it suggests other ways we could research that issue.

Author

• Sharon N. Barnartt, Gallaudet University