The spaces of poverty : renegotiating place and disability in the global South

Abstract

The subject of disability in the global South has gained some currency in recent years framed as a new field called ‘disability and development’ or ‘global disability’. Much of these developments have happened within disciplines such as global health and anthropology, and engagement with disability has come through attempts at creating linkages between disability and international development, an area with a stated global South focus (see for example Maclachlan and Swartz 2009). Arguments have emerged suggesting that disability cuts across all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and, hence, cannot be excluded from the global development agenda (Mulligan and Gooding 2009). The move towards a rights-based approach to development was another point of connection (see Stubbs 2008). It has been, though, the frequently alluded to relationship between disability and poverty that has provided the strongest linkages between disability and development (see WHO and World Bank 2011).