Disability and the Social Politics of “Natural” Disaster
The stories we tell about crisis and catastrophe often intensify structural violence, augmenting existing dynamics of racism, sexism, classism, and ableism. Disaster stories often reinforce cultural narratives of suffering womanhood and tragic stories of disability to portray people with disabilitie...
| Auteur principal: | |
|---|---|
| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Brill
2015
|
| Dans: |
Worldviews
Année: 2015, Volume: 19, Numéro: 1, Pages: 51-68 |
| Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés: | B
Catastrophe naturelle
/ Narration (Sciences sociales)
/ Dépolitisation
/ Handicap
/ Effet
|
| RelBib Classification: | NBE Anthropologie ZB Sociologie ZG Sociologie des médias; médias numériques; Sciences de l'information et de la communication |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
Disability
disaster
structural violence
gender
Jewish ethics
|
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Résumé: | The stories we tell about crisis and catastrophe often intensify structural violence, augmenting existing dynamics of racism, sexism, classism, and ableism. Disaster stories often reinforce cultural narratives of suffering womanhood and tragic stories of disability to portray people with disabilities—especially women—as “natural” and “inevitable” victims of a harsh new world. Examining both contemporary rhetoric in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and classical rabbinic Jewish narrative, I argue that tales of communities in crisis commonly depoliticize disaster. By inscribing the disabled body with a narrative of “natural” vulnerabilities and inevitable suffering, conventional disaster discourse obscures the political significance of structural inequalities that render people with disabilities more at risk in disaster. Bringing together disability studies scholarship and Jewish feminist ethics, I challenge the discursive tendency to portray disabled individuals as symbols of suffering—and to focus on the pathos of an individual in distress instead of critiquing social inequality. I advocate a constructive, redemptive storytelling that illuminates and critiques social and political exclusion, that underscores the agency and dignity of people in crisis, that valorizes the disability justice movement’s call for interdependence in community, and that captures the artistry and resiliency of disabled lives. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1568-5357 |
| Contient: | In: Worldviews
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685357-01901004 |