Disabled people and subjugated knowledges: new understandings and strategies developed by people living with chronic conditions

Abstract

This article provides a contribution to our understanding of the knowledges and strategies developed by people living with chronic illnesses, based on an empirical study with this population in England and Portugal. The article begins by mapping out the debates in disability studies which have focused on embodiment. It continues by arguing that disabled people constantly have to negotiate codes about the body based on normative notions of the body, which I term normative corporality. The main themes arising from participants’ accounts are then identified and discussed. The article ends by arguing that the knowledges and strategies developed by disabled people are often not noticed or are devalued as we tend to value knowledges of the body that come from established systems of knowledge, or from bodies our society deem normative. Thus, disabled people’s knowledges can be conceptualized as subjugated knowledges.

Keywords:

• Chronic illness
• embodied knowledge
• subjugated knowledges
• strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [Grant SFRH/BD/45970/2008].