Description of Activity
Presented a paper entitled 'Challenging Debility – Disability Rights Activism in Pakistan'The aim of this qualitative study in Lahore is to see what signs there are of movement in disability activism in the Global South. The model of social inclusion, translated from its origins in the Global North by NGOs and pressure groups, has dominated the field of contentious politics in the developing world. By recording how social actors structure their collective interests when mobilising in regulated and unregulated sites in Lahore, in spaces created by disabled subjects themselves to challenge the norms of debility, we can learn the likelihood of a more radical phase in disability activism taking root in Pakistan (Miller and Nichols 2013).
The call by activists and advocates belonging to fully conscientised disability networks in urban Pakistan for resources and legislative help in accessing health, education and work – based on essential Human Rights – is regarded as a necessary measure to ‘rehabilitate’ a stigmatised social group.
Our study asks what evidence is there that these activists are moving from a conservative strategy of recognition of minority rights by the state to make progressive social change happen in the culture at large (the Development narrative) to questioning the right of the state to predispose members of society to injury in both warring and labouring.
| Period | 21 Apr 2022 |
|---|---|
| Held at | The British Sociological Association, United Kingdom |
| Degree of Recognition | National |