Drawing upon qualitative material from parents and professionals, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, interviews and focus groups, this book brings together feminist and critical disability studies theories.

In this ground-breaking new work, Dan Goodley makes the case for a novel, distinct, intellectual, and political project - dis/ability studies - an orientation that might encourage us to think again about the phenomena of disability and ability. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary areas, including sociology, psychology, education, policy and cultural studies, this much needed text takes the most topical and important issues in critical disability theory, and pushes them into new theoretical territory. Goodley argues that we are entering a time of dis/ability studies, when both categories of disability and ability require expanding upon as a response to the global politics of neoliberal capitalism. Divided into two parts, the first section traces the dual processes of ableism and disablism, suggesting that one cannot exist without the other, and makes the case for a research-driven and intersectional analysis of dis/ability. The second section applies this new analytical framework to a range of critical topics, including: The biopolitics of dis/ability and debility Inclusive education Psychopathology Markets, communities and civil society. Dis/ability Studies provides much needed depth, texture and analysis in this emerging discipline. This accessible text will appeal to students and researchers of disability across a range of disciplines, as well as disability activists, policymakers, and practitioners working directly with disabled people.

Researching Life Stories critically and pragmatically reflects upon the use of life stories in social and educational research. Using four life stories as examples, the authors apply four different, practical approaches to demonstrate effective research and analysis.
As well as examining in detail the four life stories around which the book is written, areas covered include:
* Method and methodology in life story research
* Analysis
* Reflections on analyses
* Craft and ethics in researching life
* Policy, practice and theory in life story research.
Throughout the book the authors demystify the issues surrounding life story research and demonstrate the significance of this approach to understanding individual and social worlds.
This unique approach to life story research will be a valuable resource for all social science and education researchers at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Researching Life Stories critically and pragmatically reflects upon the use of life stories in social and educational research. Using four life stories as examples, the authors apply four different, practical approaches to demonstrate effective research and analysis.
As well as examining in detail the four life stories around which the book is written, areas covered include:
* Method and methodology in life story research
* Analysis
* Reflections on analyses
* Craft and ethics in researching life
* Policy, practice and theory in life story research.
Throughout the book the authors demystify the issues surrounding life story research and demonstrate the significance of this approach to understanding individual and social worlds.
This unique approach to life story research will be a valuable resource for all social science and education researchers at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

This co-authored text critically explores the key findings of the Living Life to the Fullest project - a project that has explored the lives, thoughts, hopes and aspirations of disabled young people living with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Written by disabled young people and academic researchers, the book articulates ethical co-production in social research. The prolific contemporary political and theoretical debates about life, death and the human in an age of global precarity and austerity are explored in this book. Chapters draw upon key themes and co-researchers' priorities for writing about their lives: for example, the politics and potentials of co-production as a research method/ology; animal and human relationships; aging, time; sexuality and body image; politics, activism and disability arts and culture; and fragility, and death and dying.

In this ground-breaking new work, Dan Goodley makes the case for a novel, distinct, intellectual, and political project - dis/ability studies - an orientation that might encourage us to think again about the phenomena of disability and ability. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary areas, including sociology, psychology, education, policy and cultural studies, this much needed text takes the most topical and important issues in critical disability theory, and pushes them into new theoretical territory. Goodley argues that we are entering a time of dis/ability studies, when both categories of disability and ability require expanding upon as a response to the global politics of neoliberal capitalism. Divided into two parts, the first section traces the dual processes of ableism and disablism, suggesting that one cannot exist without the other, and makes the case for a research-driven and intersectional analysis of dis/ability. The second section applies this new analytical framework to a range of critical topics, including: The biopolitics of dis/ability and debility Inclusive education Psychopathology Markets, communities and civil society. Dis/ability Studies provides much needed depth, texture and analysis in this emerging discipline. This accessible text will appeal to students and researchers of disability across a range of disciplines, as well as disability activists, policymakers, and practitioners working directly with disabled people.

DAN GOODLEY draws on two decades of research and writing and weaves personal stories, scholarly literature, social media and other cultural narratives together with concepts from the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. His argument is simple: disability invites great insight into the wider project of understanding the human condition. Goodley argues that the study of disability is of great importance in its own right but also has much to offer us all in considering what it means to be human in the 21st Century. Chapters address questions such as 'who's allowed to be human?'; 'are human beings dependent?'; and 'what does it mean to be human in the digital age?' and respond to these questions in ways that get us thinking about how we might productively engage with, listen to and understand one another.

Challenging existing approaches to autism that limit, and sometimes damage, the individuals who attract and receive the label, this book questions the lazy prejudices and assumptions that can surround autism as a diagnosis in the 21st Century. Arguing that autism can only be understood through examining 'it' as a socially or culturally produced phenomenon, the authors offer a critique of the medical model that has produced a perpetually marginalising approach to autism, and explain the contradictions and difficulties inherent in existing attitudes. They examine and dispute the scientific validity of diagnosis and 'treatment', asking whether autism actually exists at the biological level, and question the value of diagnosis in the lives of those labelled with autism. The book recognises that there are no easy answers but encourages engagement with these essential questions, and looks towards service provision and practice that moves beyond a reliance on all-encompassing labels. This unique contribution to the growing field of critical autism studies brings together authors from clinical psychiatry, clinical and community psychology, social sciences, disability studies, education and cultural studies, as well as those with personal experiences of autism. It is essential and challenging reading for anyone with a personal, professional or academic interest in 'autism'.

Drawing upon qualitative material from parents and professionals, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, interviews and focus groups, this book brings together feminist and critical disability studies theories.

"This book provides an introduction to four widely used qualitative research methods, followed by a detailed discussion of a pluralistic approach to qualitative research?makes exceellent use of questions both in order to help the reader gain clarity as well as to encourage reflexivity" The Psychologist, May 2012

How do people with the label of learning difficulties challenge disabling environments? what role can professionals play in supporting such challenges? how do self-advocacy groups contribute to disability politics and the development of theories of disability?;This timely book sets out to answer these questions for students, teachers and practitioners working in the field. It examines self-advocacy in the lives of people with learning difficulties. The term "learning difficulties" is used to describe people who have been labelled at some point in their lives as requiring specialist "mental handicap services". Learning difficulties is preferred over other synonyms such as mental handicap, mental impairment or learning disabilities, because it is the term preferred by many in the self-advocacy movement (the focus of this book).;Hitherto, a number of books have introduced and examined the notion of self-advocacy. This volume goes beyond these studies to offer an appraisal of self-advocacy in the lives of people with learning difficulties that is grounded in their own experiences. It redresses the dominant focus on learning difficulties as pathology or tragedy, highlighting the ways in

Disability is not just the physical, sensory or intellectual impairments a person has, but the exclusion from society they face as a result. Organisations for disabled people are a growing voice in challenging this exclusion and Anti-Discrimination legislation is helping to change the structures in society that have contributed to it. This book examines the discipline of psychology in this regard. It argues that psychology has tended to ignore the socio-cultural aspects of disability and treat disabled people as objects rather than arbiters of psychological intervention. Bringing together disabled and non-disabled researchers and psychologists, this book proposes ideas for an enabling psychological theory and practice, and addresses questions such as: " How can we support the inclusion of disabled children? " Can therapy enable rather than pathologise? " What can be learnt from the experience of disabled psychologists? " How can psychology contribute to social models of disability? In examining these issues, this volume challenges the reader to reconsider the relationship between disability studies and psychology and to do so in ways that contribute to the emancipation - rather than the exclusion - of disabled people. A key text for students on relevant courses within Disability Studies and Psychology degrees, this book is also an important resource for those who study or work in the areas of healthcare studies, nursing, sociology and social work. Dan Goodley is a Reader in Disability Studies, University of Sheffield, with research interests in disability theory, activism and methodology. Rebecca Lawthom is Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University and a member of the Research Institute for Health and Social Change. Her research interests are in disability, community and feminist psychology.