Disability, Austerity and Cruel Optimism in Big Society: Resistance and “The Disability Commons”

Authors

  • Katherine Runswick-Cole Senior Research Fellow in Disability Studies & Psychology Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Daniel Goodley Professor, Psychology and Education University of Sheffield

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v4i2.213

Keywords:

Disability, Austerity, Cruel Optimism, Big Society

Abstract

This paper draws on Berlant’s (2011) concept of “‘cruel optimism”’ as it manifests itself in the lives of disabled people with learning disabilities living in England in a time of Big Society. We argue that Big Society offers a cluster of promises to disabled people with learning disabilities: citizenship, empowerment, community, social action and a route out of (or protection from) poverty. However, we suggest that these promises have been repeatedly offered and repeatedly denied and remain tantalizingly out of reach. While drawing attention to the injustices disabled people with learning disabilities face in Big Society, we also attend to the ways in which they are working the spaces of neoliberalism in order to resist “‘their designation as disposable bodies”’ (Tyler 2013: 224).

Author Biographies

Katherine Runswick-Cole, Senior Research Fellow in Disability Studies & Psychology Manchester Metropolitan University

Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Disability Studies & Psychology

Manchester Metropolitan University

Daniel Goodley, Professor, Psychology and Education University of Sheffield

Professor, Psychology and Education

University of Sheffield

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How to Cite

Runswick-Cole, K., & Goodley, D. (2015). Disability, Austerity and Cruel Optimism in Big Society: Resistance and “The Disability Commons”. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 4(2), 162–186. https://doi.org/10.15353/cjds.v4i2.213

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2015)

Section

Articles

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