Disability policy and practice in Malawian employment and education.
Malawi
disability
inclusion
policy
postcolonial
trade unions
Journal
Sociology of health & illness
ISSN: 1467-9566
Titre abrégé: Sociol Health Illn
Pays: England
ID NLM: 8205036
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
07 2023
07 2023
Historique:
received:
10
02
2022
accepted:
04
10
2022
medline:
21
7
2023
pubmed:
13
11
2022
entrez:
12
11
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa with a population of 17.5 million. It has taken great strides in addressing disability inequality in recent years. Despite this, Malawian trade unions, educators and disability activists report wide-reaching disability discrimination at an infrastructural and individual level. Situated at the intersections between disability studies and medical sociology, alongside work of postcolonial and Global South scholars, this article highlights how neo-colonial and Anglocentric dominant framings of disability do not necessarily fit the Malawian workforce, as they ignore cultural and structural differences in the causes and maintenance of ill health and disability. Building on interviews with workers with disabilities, trade unionists, educators, government representatives and disability activists in Malawi's two biggest cities, the article emphasises the need to address specific local contexts; while policy asserts a model of social oppression, in practice, disability inclusion requires recognition of the social determinants of disability and inequality, and the economic, political and cultural context within which disability resides. Sharing co-designed approaches to engaging with disability definitions, stigma, language, infrastructure and resources, this article highlights the necessity of grounding disability and medical sociological theory in localised framings and lived experiences.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36369332
doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13577
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1354-1375Informations de copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.
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