Geography of Disability
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 February 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 February 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0064
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 February 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 February 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0064
Introduction
Geography of disability explores disabled peoples’ experiences of space and place; it is a broad research area in which geography overlaps with many other disciplines. Disability, in the most general sense, refers to individuals with mind and body differences, commonly referred to as physical or intellectual impairments. Geographies of disability investigate the relationships between the geographical environment and complex and fluid interactions with the nature of an individual’s impairment. The role of society is explored as a mechanism for including or marginalizing people with disabilities. Geography of disability refers to the landscape of disabled people’s experience, from the urban to the rural and from the microscale of household mobility to the accessibility of transportation networks across cities and countries. Research includes individuals with visible and nonvisible disabilities; for example, a person in a wheelchair as well as an individual with psychiatric illness. In the built environment, geographers study the visible manifestations of environmental adaption, such as availability of wheelchair ramps or the lack thereof. This research is extended into a range of sociospatial processes that surround issues of disablement; a range of social, political, and cultural factors; and the complex interactions among power, space, and materiality. The term disability is used to have different fluid and variable meanings in different contexts and is often contested by the philosophical approach of the researcher.
General Overviews
Given both the diversity and variable nature of disabilities and the intersection with other disciplines, from sociology and cultural studies to health science and rehabilitation science, a comprehensive introduction to the field is problematic. This is further complicated by the evolving and dynamic nature of geographers’ engagement with disability. However, Butler and Parr 1999 provides a good starting point that illustrates the complexities of illness, impairment, and disability and offers an array of research on these issues. Gleeson 1999 explores how geography shapes the experiences of disabled peoples, examining the relationship between space and disability. Imrie 1996 provides an international perspective on the inequity of access to the built environment and extends this to explore the interwoven nature of society and the marginalization of people with disabilities. Park, et al. 1998 provides an excellent geographical review of classic texts from outside of geography that provide access to thorough overviews of disability. Shakespeare 1998, a reader on disability studies, provides a broad social-science perspective on disability theory and equality. Barton 1996 moves the discussion of disability away from medical and psychological models, introducing discussion and reflections with alternative perspectives reflecting the increasing sociological interest in the field. In Oliver 2009 (first published in 1996), works from disability theory to practice are included. In encyclopedias, succinct overviews of geographies of disability are provided in Jacobson 2006, and a more detailed, thorough, and nuanced overview is included in Chouinard 2001, each providing links to other readings.
Barton, Len, ed. Disability and Society: Emerging Issues and Insights. Longman Sociology. London and New York: Longman, 1996.
This work opens up the debate away from medical and psychological discussions of disability, toward a discussion of the material and social conditions and relations of society as disabling. The contributors, both disabled and nondisabled, provide a lively and varied discussion. A good starting point for undergraduate students.
Butler, Ruth, and Hester Parr, eds. Mind and Body Spaces: Geographies of Illness, Impairment, and Disability. Critical Geographies 1. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.
Provides a comprehensive introduction to the diversity of disability, and geographers’ approach to its research. International in nature, from a first-world perspective, with contributions from North America, Europe, and Australia. Introduces a range of geographical spatial scales and extends these to the wider sociocultural, political, and economic environments.
Chouinard, Vera. “Disability, Geography of.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 6. Edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, 3701–3704. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier, 2001.
A detailed overview of geography and disability, from a critical perspective, discussing why such a subdiscipline is needed and commenting on existing research topics and future challenges and directions.
Gleeson, Brendan. Geographies of Disability. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.
Explores how geography shapes the experiences of disabled people, examining the relationship between space and disability. Presents critical theories of disability, space, and embodiment then places issues within a historical context and discusses contemporary scenarios of disability, including the topics of community care and accessibility regulation.
Imrie, Robert. Disability and the City: International Perspectives. London: Paul Chapman, 1996.
Addresses roles of “design professionals,” architects, and planners in the interrelationships among disability, physical access, and the built environment that marginalize disabled people, often one of the poorest groups in Western societies, who are lacking in power, education, and opportunities. Relevant to final-year geography, planning, and architecture courses and postgraduate planning courses.
Jacobson, Dan. “Disability, Geography of.” In Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Edited by Barney Warf, 109–111. Thousand Oaks, CA, and London: SAGE, 2006.
A succinct introduction to the area of inquiry, in an accessible encyclopedia on human geography.
Oliver, Michael. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice. 2d ed. New York: St. Martin’s, 2009.
A reworked and wide-ranging collection of essays that update the fundamental principles of disability, citizenship, and community care; social policy and welfare; education; rehabilitation; and the politics of new social movements in their international context. Includes new discussions of rehabilitation, special education, and normalization.
Park, Deborah C., John P. Radford, and Michael H. Vickers. “Disability Studies in Human Geography.” Progress in Human Geography 22.2 (April 1998): 208–233.
DOI: 10.1191/030913298672928786
A thorough overview of all themes of disability research in human geography. The article provided a review of multiple papers and a thematic classification of prior research. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Shakespeare, Tom, ed. The Disability Reader: Social Science Perspectives. London and New York: Cassell, 1998.
A broad range of essays that explore the intellectual implications of disability, from a social (in)equality perspective. Academics from a range of social-science backgrounds bring their insights and perspectives to comment on existing theory and contemporary debates of the time.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abortion, Geographies of
- Accessing and Visualizing Archived Weather and Climate Dat...
- Activity Space
- Actor Network Theory (ANT)
- Age, Geographies of
- Agent-based Modeling
- Agricultural Geography
- Agricultural Meteorology/Climatology
- Animal Geographies
- Anthropocene and Geography, The
- Anthropogenic Climate Change
- Applied Geography
- Arctic Climatology
- Arctic, The
- Art and Geography
- Assemblage
- Assessment in Geography Education
- Atmospheric Composition and Structure
- Automobility
- Aviation Meteorology
- Beer, Geography of
- Behavioral and Cognitive Geography
- Belonging
- Belt and Road Initiative
- Biodiversity Conservation
- Biodiversity Gradients
- Biogeography
- Biogeomorphology and Zoogeomorphology
- Biometric Technologies
- Biopedoturbation
- Body, Geographies of the
- Borders and Boundaries
- Brownfields
- Carbon Cycle
- Carceral Geographies
- Cartography
- Cartography, History of
- Cartography, Mapping, and War
- Chicago School
- Children and Childhood, Geographies of
- Citizenship
- Climate Literacy and Education
- Climatology
- College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework in Geograph...
- Colonialism and the Environment
- Communication
- Community Mapping
- Commuting
- Comparative Urbanism
- Complexity
- Conservation Biogeography
- Consumption, Geographies of
- Crime Analysis, GIS and
- Crime, Geography of
- Critical GIS
- Critical Historical Geography
- Critical Military Geographies
- Cultural Ecology and Human Ecology
- Cultural Geography
- Cultural Landscape
- CyberGIS
- Cyberspace, Geography of
- Desertification
- Developing World
- Development, Regional
- Development Theory
- Disability, Geography of
- Disease, Geography of
- Drones, Geography of
- Drought
- Drugs, Geography of
- Economic Geography
- Economic Historical Geography
- Edge Cities and Urban Sprawl
- Education (K-12), Geography
- El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
- Elderly, Geography and the
- Electoral Geography
- Empire, Geography and
- Energy, Geographies of
- Energy, Renewable
- Energy Resources and Use
- Environment and Development
- Environmental Electronic Sensing Systems
- Environmental Justice
- Ethics, Geographers and
- Ethics, Geography and
- Ethnicity
- Ethnography
- Ethnonationalism
- Everyday Life, Geography and
- Extreme Heat
- Family, Geographies of the
- Feminist Geography
- Fieldwork
- Film, Geography and
- Finance, Geography of
- Financial Geographies of Debt and Crisis
- Fluvial Geomorphology
- Folk Culture and Geography
- Future, Geographies of the
- Gender and Geography
- Gentrification
- Geocomputation in Geography Education
- Geographic Information Science
- Geographic Methods: Archival Research
- Geographic Methods: Discourse Analysis
- Geographic Methods: Interviews
- Geographic Methods: Life Writing Analysis
- Geographic Methods: Visual Analysis
- Geographic Thought (US)
- Geographic Vulnerability to Climate Change
- Geographies of Affect
- Geographies of Diplomacy
- Geographies of Education
- Geographies of Resilience
- Geography and Class
- Geography Education, GeoCapabilities in
- Geography, Gramsci and
- Geography, Legal
- Geography of Biofuels
- Geography of Food
- Geography of Hunger and Famine
- Geography of Industrialization
- Geography of Public Policy
- Geography of Resources
- Geopolitics
- Geopolitics, Energy and
- Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI)
- GIS and Computational Social Sciences
- GIS and Health
- GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Geomorphology
- GIS and Virtual Reality
- GIS applications in Human Geography
- GIS, Ethics of
- GIS, Geospatial Technology, and Spatial Thinking in Geogra...
- GIS, Historical
- GIS, History of
- GIS, Space-Time
- Glacial and Periglacial Geomorphology
- Glaciers, Geography of
- Globalization
- Health Care, Geography of
- Hegemony and Geographic Knowledge
- Historical Geography
- Historical Geography of Infrastructure
- Historical Mobilities
- Histories of Protest and Social Movements
- History, Environmental
- Homelessness
- Human Dynamics, GIScience of
- Human Geographies of Outer Space
- Human Trafficking
- Humanistic Geography
- Human-Landscape Interactions
- Humor, Geographies of
- Hurricanes
- Hydroclimatology and Climate Variability
- Hydrology
- Identity and Place
- "Imagining a Better Future through Place": Geographies of ...
- Immigration and Immigrants
- Indigenous Peoples and the Global Indigenous Movement
- Informal Economy
- Innovation, Geography of
- Intelligence, Geographical
- Islands, Human Geography and
- Justice, Geography of
- Knowledge Economy: Spatial Approaches
- Knowledge, Geography of
- Labor, Geography of
- Land Use and Cover Change
- Land-Atmosphere Interactions
- Landscape Interpretation
- Literature, Geography and
- Location Theory
- Marine Biogeography
- Marine Conservation and Fisheries Management
- Media Geography
- Medical Geography
- Migration
- Migration, International Student
- Military Geographies and the Environment
- Military Geographies of Popular Culture
- Military Geographies of Urban Space and War
- Military Geography
- Moonsoons, Geography of
- Mountain Geography
- Mountain Meteorology
- Music, Sound, and Auditory Culture, Geographies of
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Geog...
- Nations and Nationalism
- Natural Hazards and Risk
- Nature-Society Theory
- Necropolitics and Geography
- Neogeography
- New Urbanism
- Nightlife
- Non-representational Theory
- Nuclear War, Geographies of
- Nutrition Transition, The
- Oceans
- Orientalism and Geography
- Participatory Action Research
- Peace, Geographies of
- Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Geography Education
- Perspectives in Geography Internships
- Phenology and Climate
- Photographic and Video Methods in Geography
- Physical Geography
- Place
- Polar Geography
- Policy Mobilities
- Political Ecology
- Political Geography
- Political Geology
- Popular Culture, Geography and
- Population Geography
- Ports and Maritime Trade
- Postcolonialism
- Postmodernism and Poststructuralism
- Pragmatism, Geographies of
- Producer Services
- Psychogeography
- Public Participation GIS, Participatory GIS, and Participa...
- Qualitative GIS
- Qualitative Methods
- Quantitative Methods in Human Geography
- Questionnaires
- Race and Racism
- Refugees, Geography of
- Religion, Geographies of
- Retail Trade, Geography of
- Rural Geography
- Science and Technology Studies (STS) in Geography
- Sea-Level Research, Quaternary
- Security and Securitization, Geographies of
- Segregation, Ethnic and Racial
- Service Industries, Geography of
- Settlement Geography
- Sexuality, Geography of
- Slope Processes
- Social Justice
- Social Media Analytics
- Soils, Diversity of
- Sonic Methods in Geography
- Spatial Analysis
- Spatial Autocorrelation
- Sports, Geography of
- Sustainability Education at the School Level, Geography an...
- Sustainability Science
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Synoptic Climatology
- Technological Change, Geography of
- Telecommunications
- Teleconnections, Atmospheric
- Terrestrial Snow, Measurement of
- Territory and Territoriality
- Terrorism, Geography of
- The Climate Security Nexus
- The Voluntary Sector and Geography
- Time, Geographies of
- Time Geography
- Time-Space Compression
- Tourism Geography
- Touristification
- Transnational Corporations
- Unoccupied Aircraft Systems
- Urban Geography
- Urban Heritage
- Urban Historical Geography
- Urban Meteorology and Climatology
- Urban Planning and Geography
- Urban Political Ecology
- Urban Sustainability
- Visualizations
- Vulnerability, Risk, and Hazards
- Vulnerability to Climate Change
- War on Terror, Geographies of the
- Water
- Weather and Climate Damage Studies
- Wetlands
- Whiteness, Geographies of
- Wine, Geography of
- World Cities
- Young People's Geography