Boys, J;
(2017)
Invisibility work? How starting from dis/ability challenges normative social, spatial and material practices.
In: Frichot, H and Gabrielsson, C and Runting, H, (eds.)
Architecture and Feminisms Ecologies, Economies, Technologies.
Routledge: London, UK.
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Abstract
This chapter explores how thinking about dis/ability (disability and ability) opens up what counts as work to critical and creative investigation. It will examine three, inter-connected, notions of work; the often unnoticed – and differential - work involved in negotiating our built surroundings: the commonsense ‘ordinary’ work of making and re-making particular social, spatial and material practices through our everyday attitudes, talk and actions: and the work of perpetuating and/or contesting unequal and normative practices through architectural, artistic, political and personal interventions. These types of work are not new to feminism, which also aims to expose the invisible and/or marginalised work around gender, and to develop creative and critical forms of contestation. The key argument here though, is about taking notice of how and when feminism – along with cultural theory more generally – can assume that work to be the work of only particular kinds of bodies, ones that are inherently mobile, rational and autonomous. The privilege of being able-bodied (or white or middle class) becomes part of what is unnoticed and unspoken about, with disability as a concept, and disabled people as a constituency left to disappear down the gaps. In response, I will suggest that starting from dis/ability has a huge amount to offer across our everyday, professional and academic thinking about, and actions in, the world; and to show the essential relevance of the work of disability studies scholars and disabled artists and activists to contemporary architectural feminisms.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Invisibility work? How starting from dis/ability challenges normative social, spatial and material practices |
| ISBN: | 135139620X |
| ISBN-13: | 9781351396202 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.4324/9780203729717-30 |
| Publisher version: | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/978020372971... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett Sch of Const and Proj Mgt > Bartlett Real Estate Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10088525 |
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