ERIC Number: EJ1360133
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Jul
Pages: 36
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1740-2743
A Marxist Approach to Disability: Notes on Marx's Relative Surplus Population
Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v20 n2 p36-71 Jul 2022
This article deploys a materialist theoretical and methodological framework to analyse and discuss capitalism's disabling phenomena. It is my intention to demonstrate how Marx's concept of a "relative surplus population" may be used to scrutinise capitalism's symbols, meanings, images, and practices which reproduce ableism as the norm. Bringing this concept to the centre of the analysis will help us rethink the impacts of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and disability on the working-class. I will argue that the neoliberal Ideology of Competence, reproduced in everyday life, is used to (1) strengthen and sustain the social division of labour; (2) disguise class divisions and meritocratic values and practices, and (3) preserve bourgeois, ableist, racist, sexist, and ageist practices. It is my expectation to contribute to the educational revolutionary debate insofar as the education of disabled people may stand as a counter-hegemonic practice alongside and intertwined with analyses of race, ethnicity, and gender in their intersections with the impact of class condition. Additionally, this discussion will also serve as a contribution to a critical approach to the neoliberal discourse of inclusion, which also involves issues of class, race, gender, and ethnicity. Thinking and rethinking these phenomena is part of action-reflection praxis of critical educators. Thus, I perceive this paper as a contribution to this praxis and as a counter-hegemonic manifesto.
Descriptors: Marxian Analysis, Disabilities, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Social Systems, Social Bias, Social Class, Working Class, Neoliberalism, Ideology, Gender Bias, Racism, Inclusion, Ethnicity, Praxis
Institute for Education Policy Studies. University of Northampton, School of Education, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, NN2 7AL, UK. Tel: +44-1273-270943; e-mail: ieps@ieps.org.uk; Web site: http://www.jceps.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A