Disability and Discourses of Mobility and Movement

Abstract

In this paper I seek to make a contribution to ‘geographies of mobility’ by arguing that assumptions of unrestricted movement and mobility in contemporary Western societies are hegemonic in prioritising specific bodies and modes of mobility and movement. In particular, mobility and movement are defined through ‘normalising’ discourses which serve to alienate impaired bodies and to prioritise what one might term the ‘mobile body’. This has the effect of (re)producing structured inequalities in peoples' movement and mobility patterns. Such ideas are developed and illustrated with reference to interviews with disabled people.