Disability and Community: Dis/engagement, dis/enfranchisement, dis/parity and dissent

Disability and Community: Dis/engagement, Dis/enfranchisement, Dis/parity and Dissent (aka the D4D project) will investigate the evolving ways in which disabled people express, perform, experience and practise 'community'.

The work will be informed by critical disability theory, and it will foreground the knowledge and lived experiences of disabled people. The project team brings together academics from a range of disciplines, community investigators with expertise in performance and arts practice, and community partners (including Shape, Accentuate and DRUK).

Our goals are to learn from participating communities, to build understanding, to generate opportunities for connections, solidarity, resilience and activism, and to create meaningful legacies for the communities and partners involved.

D4D will explore aspects of the historical, clinical, institutional, political and technological construction of disabled communities, and trace the ways in which community members have contested, rejected and embraced these varied possibilities over time. The project will facilitate agency and empowerment among participants, facilitate knowledge exchange and professional development, and create new spaces for dialogue and intervention.

Funded by AHRC.