Barriered and Bounded Places and the Spatialities of Disability

Abstract

The papers in this Special Issue of Urban Studies consider, in their contrasting ways, the spatialities of disability and disabled people's barriered and bounded lives. The papers provide a range of insights into geographies of identity formation, while seeking to (re)assert the power of territoriality by putting "the place (and historical specificity) back into displacement" (Bammer, 1994, p. xiv; quoted in Pratt, 1998, p. 27). This introduction describes the main themes of the Special Issue and develops the argument that geographers and scholars of urban studies ought to develop a more active interest in the diverse and multiple geographies of disability.