From walls to society. Institutions and the government of disability in contemporary Spain

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the emergence of the ‘disabled subject’ in contemporary Spain. In order to do this, the study undertakes a qualitative research, based on seventeen in-depth interviews conducted with subjects with an innate or acquired physical impairment, coming from different regions of Spain, and born in the interval between the years 1938 and 1962. These cases will be analysed in the light of three key social institutions: the family, the system of education and the national health system. The study involves, on the other hand, a theoretical framework based mainly on the oeuvre of Foucault, Bourdieu and the Second School of Chicago. The proposed cases will allow us to understand how people with physical impairments faced prejudices, stereotypes and oppressive forms of subjectivity, and how their subjective resistance allowed them to create new spaces of existence.

Points of interest

• People with disabilities endure discriminatory experiences, which can lead to a certain stigmatization and a negative perception of the self.

• This article delves into life stories of seventeen individuals with physical disabilities in Contemporary Spain.

• In their passage through a myriad of institutions, people with physical disabilities often developed negative views of themselves, induced by the different agents and institutions around them.

• This type of research is important, because it allows us to understand, through particular cases, how people with physical impairments went through systematic discrimination, and what resources they could use to fight the prejudices and stereotypes, transforming their own perception and the social image of disability.

Keywords:

• disability
• institutions
• governance
• subjectivity
• contemporary Spain

Disclosure statement

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