Enabling Futures? Disability and Sociology of Futures

Join us in person for this week's School Research Seminar, which will be jointly led by Dr Richard Tutton (University of York) and our very own Dr Hannah Morgan.

Abstract:

Much envisaging of the future is inherently ableist. Euro-American cultural imaginaries traditionally have emphasised the narrative of medical progress, assuming the end of impairment. Disability is a frequent trope for and in dystopias, while more positive or progressive futures ignore the presence and aspirations of disabled people who are frequently excluded from individual and collective endeavours to articulate and shape the future. They are presumed to be in effect ‘futureless’, lacking a future of value, leaving an unoccupied space for existing inequalities and privileges to flourish. This paper brings Disability Studies and Sociology of Futures into dialogue and makes the case for creating crip space(s) within sociologies of the future. Foregrounding disability can trouble and enrich sociological engagements with futurity, while analytic perspectives from sociology of futures can inform scholarship in Disability Studies.

Registration: 

All are welcome. This is a free event, no registration required.

Speaker Biographies: 

Dr Richard Tutton is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of York and co-Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU). His work engages with the making and contesting of social and technological futures in the contemporary world. 

Dr Hannah Morgan is Associate Professor in Social Policy and Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. Her work is concerned with the application of the ideas of the disabled people’s movement, and the role of professional practices in the lives of disabled people.