Current research in Sociology of Disability has a tendency to assume that very little written in this area until the last 20 years. However, this is not always the case. In part the lack of awareness of older writing occurs because of the ease of computerized searching for recent references or a sense that newer is better. It also reflects the assumption that Sociology as a field has ignored either disability as a social phenomenon or treated it solely as a medical phenomenon. While theorists and introductory textbooks have tended [and still tend] to ignore disability as a non-medical phenomenon and especially as a structured source of inequality, that does not mean that no attention was paid to disability in the earlier years. Rather, interest in disability from a sociological point of view exists as early as the late 1800s. The purpose of this volume is to explore that literature, with an eye towards encouraging current scholars not to ask "the same old" questions but to use the older writings as a basis for revolutionary as well as evolutionary thinking. What do the older writings tell us about what questions we should be asking, and what research we should be doing, today?

COVID-19 has once again illuminated the ways in which health risks and negative health outcomes are tied to economic and social inequalities. Disabled people rank among those most disadvantaged in terms of education, income, and social inclusion and this exacerbated their risk of negative pandemic-related outcomes. From the start, it was clear that disabled people would be disproportionately affected by the pandemic and this solidified as the pandemic unfolded. Disability in the Time of Pandemic is a timely exploration of emerging research into the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with disabilities in their varied communities and across their complex identities. Using the insights, perspectives, and methods of a variety of disciplines including Anthropology, Disability Studies, Education, Physical and Rehabilitation Therapies, Public Health, Psychology, Sociology, and Women's and Gender Studies, authors explore the initial and ongoing effects of the global pandemic on people with disabilities in Canada, India, Poland, and the United States. The Research in Social Science and Disability series is essential reading for researchers and students across the social sciences interested in disability, social movements, activism, and identity.

This volume explores questions about narrative frameworks in disability research. Narrative is a omnipresent meaning-producing communication form in social life that is both cultural and personal. Public understandings of disability tend to follow a medical storyline in which disability is a personal tragedy to be treated through professional intervention - a frame that disempowers and fails to resonate with many disabled people. Scholars in disability studies and the social sciences have proposed an alternative that portrays social structures, forces, and attitudes as the problems to be resolved - a frame that, while empowering, may neglect, or even repress, some kinds of personal disability stories. This volume seeks to answer the call for richer, more diverse understandings of disability. We explore how narrative inquiry can broaden perspectives on disability to include pain, suffering, chronic illness, and episodic disability, as well as the perspectives of family members and caregivers, while also serving as a platform for dismantling prejudice and discrimination in order to promote positive social change.