Disability Studies: The Old and the New

Abstract

This paper does not intend to empirically establish whether Disability Studies is old or new; instead, it aims to uncover what the gloss new means in relation to mainstream sociol- ogy's rejection of such a claim and the repetitive articulation of it by Disability Studies. Conceptions of disability found in traditional sociological studies of disability-as-deviance are explored, turning first to the work of Goffman and then to a mainstream deviance text book. The paper then uncovers the values and assumptions that lie behind the social act of conceiving Disability Studies as a new field of inquiry. Thus, new is symbolic of an affirmation of inquiry into ablebodiedness as itself a culture in need of critical engagement. It is also a way to articulate the standpoint of disability as a means to provoke such inquiry. Further, new is a rhetorical device to highlight that many Disability Studies researchers are now challenging the mainstream approaches to the study of disability.