Sociology's Missing Other: Toward the Inclusion of Disability as a Central Axis of Stratification

• In Event: 519 - Section on Race, Class and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 04. Adding New Intersections

Abstract

Though sociologists contend with disability within the boundaries of a robust health subfield, the discipline as a whole has failed to examine disability as a central axis of stratification. We argue disability oppression needs to be taken more seriously by sociologists, and we provide a framework for moving beyond stigma in our analyses of disability. We discuss the social construction of disability, identifying the ways disability is produced through social processes in addition to biological ones. We examine how disability has been deployed to delineate boundaries of citizenship throughout U.S. history, alongside, and interacting with, categories of race, class, and gender. Finally, using the case of special education, we illuminate how intersectional analyses which include disability can enrich our understandings of contemporary issues of sociological concern.

Authors

• Angela Frederick, University of Texas at El Paso

• Dara Renee Shifrer, Portland State University