Disability and rural poverty in the global South

Abstract

Over the past two decades, we have seen the slow yet consistent establishment of linkages between disability and poverty, a relationship often framed as a mutually reinforcing cycle. However, in practice, there remains a dearth of empirical research into this relationship, including intersectional research looking at other key thematic areas such as childhood, gender, race and indigeneity, legal status and forced migration with the complexity and criticality they deserve. Complex intersectional dimensions traversing history, power, inequality and (geo)politics in the multidimensional, dynamic, and heterogeneous rural lives, spaces and places are also not carefully addressed in the bid to simplify and generalise this relationship. This chapter responds to some of these concerns, providing a critical yet partial analysis of this relationship, to address two key areas: issues that arise as we intersect disability and poverty epistemologically; and the implications of these for intersectional methodologies.