A Geography for Disabled People?

Abstract

Disability is a critical social issue, long neglected in geography. Given this, Golledge (1993) has made an important and timely call for a geography of and for disability which hopefully will catalyse debate on this important social issue amongst geographers. This paper engages Golledge's positivistic appreciation of disablement by arguing that disability is a form of oppression which is socio-spatially produced rather than naturally given. It sketches an alternative view of disablement which draws upon both the historical-geographical materialism of Marxist geographers and the work of materialist disability scholars. In contrast to Golledge's view of disablement, the materialist position explains disability as the product of the historically and spatially specific transformation of nature by human societies. The paper concludes by reflecting critically upon Golledge's assertion that geographers can and should pursue a geography for the disabled.