Big Society? Disabled people with the label of learning disabilities and the queer(y)ing of civil society

Dan Goodley,Katherine Runswick-Cole

doi:10.1080/15017419.2014.941924

Dan Goodley, Katherine Runswick-Cole

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2014.941924

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Abstract

This paper explores the shifting landscape of civil society alongside the emergence of ‘Big Society’ in the UK. We do so as we begin a research project Big Society? Disabled people with learning disabilities and Civil Society [Economic and Social Research Council (ES/K004883/1)]; we consider what ‘Big Society’ might mean for the lives of disabled people labelled with learning disabilities (LDs). In the paper, we explore the ways in which the disabled body/mind might be thought of as a locus of contradictions as it makes problematic Big Society notions of: active citizenship and social capital. Our aim is to queer(y), or to trouble, these Big Society ideas, and to suggest that disability offers new ways of thinking through civil society. This leads us to three new theoretical takes upon civil society: (1) queer(y)ing active citizenship, (2) queer(y)ing social capital and (3) shaping, resisting and queer(y)ing Big Society. We conclude by suggesting that now is the time for disabled people with LDs to re-enter the fray in a new epoch of crip civil society.

Highlights

IntroductionThe civil self is compelled to repeatedly display his purity by vigilant self-monitoring and disciplinary purification rituals. (Seidman 2008, 18)
The civil self is compelled to repeatedly display his purity by vigilant self-monitoring and disciplinary purification rituals. (Seidman 2008, 18)This paper addresses contemporary understandings of civil society alongside the emergence of ‘Big Society’ as a policy agenda in the UK
We do so as we begin a research project Big Society? Disabled people with learning disabilities and Civil Society [Economic and Social Research Council (ES/K004883/1)]; we consider what ‘Big Society’ might mean for the lives of disabled people labelled with learning disabilities (LDs)

Summary

Introduction

The civil self is compelled to repeatedly display his purity by vigilant self-monitoring and disciplinary purification rituals. (Seidman 2008, 18). Reduced public expenditure, increased social unrest, intensified feelings of social isolation amongst our communities will inevitably lead to hostilities, often enacted against those perceived to be the weakest in society Add to this the dominant ideology of neoliberalism: a self-governing, self-serving, moral responsibility for oneself and one’s family, anyone considered unable or unwilling to take on such a citizenship role will receive a ‘marked identity’ (Bauman 1994) such as ‘scrounger’, ‘waster’ or ‘dependent’. These are crucial times for organizations of disabled people, advocates, family and parent organizations because we are witnessing the emergence of what we term disabling civil society. We ask what the possible threats and opportunities might be for people with LD in a time of Big Society and what we can learn from the lives of disabled people with LD about the potential to queer the normative pitch?

Big Society

Civil society

The project