At the interstices of classification: Notes on the category of disability in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

People in all cultures of the world classify other people most readily in easily identifiable categories. Examples of such categories are race, gender, economic, and physical difference. These categories make the world intelligible because they assign roles and functions attached to the individuals that fill the category. Racial, gender, and other categories that reflect difference may change over time as to the meaning and assigned roles and functions, but the very fact of them being a criterion for classification remains rather unchallenged. Yet the very fact of classification may question whether individuals with disabilities belong to the most essential of all categories, the human category. With classification, a statement of exclusion or inclusion in the human category is imminent.

Citation

Devlieger, P.J. (2010), "At the interstices of classification: Notes on the category of disability in sub-Saharan Africa", Barnartt, S.N. (Ed.) Disability as a Fluid State (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 69-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3547(2010)0000005006