(Mal)adjusted to the Crisis, Disabled for Citizenship? Disability and Race in Discourses of “the Crisis” Cover Image

(Ne)přizpůsobeni krizi, nezpůsobilí občanství? „Postižení“ a „rasa“ v diskursech krize
(Mal)adjusted to the Crisis, Disabled for Citizenship? Disability and Race in Discourses of “the Crisis”

Author(s): Kateřina Kolářová
Subject(s): Gender Studies
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Sociologický ústav
Keywords: crisis; post‑political; intersectional feminist theory; dis/ability; race; discourses of (mal)adjustment; social welfare

Summary/Abstract: Interrogating the austerity measures introduced by the Czech government under the Prime Ministry of Petr Nečas (2010–2013), this essay wishes to highlight the importance of the translations of the political into the registry of morality, which Chantal Mouffe identifies as features of post‑politics, for (re)establishment of social hierarchies and inequalities based in difference. In particular, I demonstrate the strategic importance of “disability” and the racialised concept of “maladaptation” for such post‑political reformulations of the political and normative outlines of abled citizenship. After mapping out the ideological deployment of the idea of crisis for the ethics of austerity, the essay concludes by posing questions about possible limits and drawbacks of relying upon crisis as a trope of intersectional feminist critique.

  • Issue Year: 15/2014
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 48-60
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Czech