Disability and well-being: towards a Capability Approach for marketplace access

ABSTRACT

Using the Capability Approach (CA) as a means of identifying the barriers that individuals with disabilities face in achieving their goals, this conceptual paper aims to provoke discussion and identify how society excludes and marginalises individuals with disabilities. As framed through the lens of consumer vulnerability, reimagining how society, policy makers and the market can transform lived experiences, representation and symbolism of disability, this paper calls for a coherent and integrated set of actions. Central to these actions is a proposal for a transformative approach to marketplace access as a coordinated force to deliver positive change for people with disabilities. Through developing a new conceptual way of how the market should engage with disability, this paper presents proposals looking to ensure individuals with disabilities experience the conditions in which they can pursue their ultimate ends.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• Capability Approach
• market accessibility
• Wellbeing
• Consumer Vulnerability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, 2018.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anoop Bhogal-Nair

Anoop Bhogal-Nair is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Consumption at Leicester Castle Business School. Her research interests centre on understanding how consumers negotiate and consume both their sense of physical being and their self-identity in the spaces that they occupy. To date her work has focused upon Indian female consumers, minoritised and marginalised groups. Much of Anoop't work takes a transdicsiplinary perspective focusing on the challenges, threats and opportunities consumers experience in their daily lives as individuals.

Andrew M. Lindridge

Andrew Lindridge is a Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Newcastle University business school. Andrew’s research interests focus on the marginalised consumer, i.e. consumers who feel unable or unwilling to identify with the consumer market, or who the market intentionally excludes owing to cultural, economic, political, religious, or social reasons. An interest that has led to researching marginalised consumers in Britain, China, France, India, and the United States on a variety of consumption topics ranging from: ethnic minorities and alcoholism, inter-generational rifts within ethnic minorities, and how David Bowie fans use his music to reimagine their own past.

Mark Tadajewski

Mark Tadajewski is Honorary Visiting Professor of Marketing at the University of York and Royal Holloway, University of London.

Mona Moufahim

Mona Moufahim is a Senior Lecturer in Marketin at the University of Stirling Management School. Mona's interests include: Religion, Travel and Consumption; Cultural heritages sites and pilgrimage; Identity (organisational, ethnic/racial, religious or political); immigration and extreme right politics. Her work has been published in Organization Studies, Journal of Marketing Management, Marketing Theory and Consumption Markets and Culture. I have also contributed chapters to scholarly books on Political Marketing, Critical Marketing and Islamic Marketing.

Daniela Alcoforado

Daniela Alcoforado is a PhD student at the Federal University of Pernambuco | UFPE · Departamento de Ciências Administrativas

Mohammed Cheded

Mohammed Cheded is a Lecturer in Management at Lancaster University Management School. Mohammed's research takes an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on sociology, anthropology and linguistics – focusing on topics such as inequality, identity construction, and power relations.

Bernardo Figueiredo

Bernardo Figueiredo is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics, Finance, and Marketing at RMIT University. Bernardo's research interests focus on understanding how the globalisation of markets and cultures shapes consumption and marketing practices. He has published in some of the top journals in his area including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Retailing.

Chihling Liu

Chihling Liu is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing Lancaster University Management School. She obtained her PhD at Alliance Manchester Business School, UK. Her research activity is predominantly in the area of consumer culture theory, exploring the interrelationships between consumption, self and identity, with a specific focus on improving consumer welfare and subjective wellbeing.