Comment from the Field

Abstract

The British Sociological Association's (BSA) annual conference was held at Glasgow Caledonian University, 15-17 April 2015. The key aim of the conference was to promote current and major work undertaken by researchers with a shared sociological interest. By organizing presentations into discipline-related streams, the conference encouraged multidisciplinary engagement with key aims and issues within sociology. Alongside the multiple streams, three plenaries were hosted by speakers who reflected on the central conference theme, including Alice Goffman, Colin Samson, and Guy Standing. Pecha Kucha presentations were also introduced. Designed to last for under seven minutes, these presentations succeeded in creating an engaging and lively atmosphere while stimulating topical dialogue. Steered by a focus on highlighting how critical, multidisciplinary perspectives are advancing sociological thought and research, the BSA conference highlighted how shared disciplinary values and discussion richly enhances the knowledge we produce. Bringing together researchers from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds-including race studies, medicine, cultural studies, and education-redefined the cause for commitment to reflecting upon society and global human and environmental issues in a way that crosses boundaries and seeks complexity.Tom Campbell (University of Leeds) presented the first paper with a disability studies focus, exploring the ways that social inequality and the social status of disabled people are linked. He underlined the knowledge that the phenomenon of disability is widely under-researched in sociology, while being at the locus of social and political debates surrounding citizen entitlement. His paper powerfully set the tone for progressive sociological engagement with disability studies. Rather than including disability as a supporting aspect in the sociological landscape, the notion that disability studies' values, aims, and issues have transformative potential for sociological research was underscored. From this perspective, the engagement with disability studies started from an unapologetic and undiluted standpoint. Personally, I believe that a centralizing focus on disability and the societal discrimination faced by people with impairments was a necessary position to adopt, especially in a multidisciplinary environment such as the BSA conference. Too often disability and impairment is sidelined as a personal issue, not getting the recognition it deserves in sociological research that explores oppression on a macro level. Campbell's paper articulated how the systemic stigmatization and undermining of disability is ingrained in culture. Through examining the position of disability identity within social structures, research in sociology has the potential to progressively recognize the inextricable links of sociopolitical conditions and cultural representation.Strengthening the case for greater focus on disability representation within studies of oppression and sociopolitical power relations, Teodor Mladener (King's College London) presented a paper that focused on the notion of a disability matrix. She positioned this term as a critical framework to better understand the economic distribution, cultural recognition, and political representation of disability. This excellent paper focused on the phenomenon of disability as arising from hegemonic political systems in society. In particular, she discussed dominant perceptions of disability in post-socialist Bulgaria. She posited two factors-namely, socialist legacies and post-socialist neoliberalization-within the locus of oppression and discrimination faced by disabled people. In order to critically analyse the nature and affect of political legacies on the lives and societal treatment of disabled people, she argued that the post-socialist disability matrix offers a foundational basis for research in this area. She outlined how and why critical inquiry must reflect on political systems. …