Youth and Disability ― A Challenge to Mr Reasonable

In this ground-breaking book, Jenny Slater uses the lens of a€?the reasonablea€? to explore how normative understandings of youth, dis/ability and the intersecting identities of gender and sexuality impact upon the lives of young dis/abled people. Although youth and disability have separately been thought within socio-cultural frameworks, rarely have sociological studies of a€?youtha€? and a€?disabilitya€? been brought together. By taking an interdisciplinary, critical disability studies approach to explore the socio-cultural concepts of a€?youtha€? and a€?disabilitya€? alongside one-another, Slater convincingly demonstrates that a€?youtha€? and a€?disabilitya€? have been conceptualised within medical/psychological frameworks for too long. With chapters focusing on access and youth culture, independence, autonomy and disabled peoplea€?s movements, and the body, gender and sexuality, this volumea€?s intersectional and transdisciplinary engagement with social theory offers a significant contribution to existing theoretical and empirical literature and knowledges around disability and youth. Indeed, through highlighting the ableism of adulthood and the falsity of conceptualising youth as a time of becoming-independent-adult, the need to shift approaches to research around dis/abled youth is one of the main themes of the book. This book therefore is a provocation to rethink what is implicit about a€?youtha€? and a€?disabilitya€?. Moreover, through such an endeavour, this book sits as a challenge to Mr Reasonable.

Jenny Slater is Lecturer in Education and Disability Studies at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.