A new-materialist reading of disability, senescence and the life-course

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new-materialist theoretical commentary on disability, senescence and the life-course. Critical literature review with deductive thematic analysis was undertaken using an electronic database search strategy. For analysis, theoretical conventions of new-materialism were deductively applied to literature. New-materialism offers an approach taken by disability studies’ scholars within critical disability studies and elsewhere. A hallmark of the approach is attempting to return to the focus traditionally given in disability theory to physical and material aspects of disability. This would include complex issues such as exploring the corporeality of impairment and what embodied selfhood means. The central argument is that new-materialism and critical disability studies can effectively illuminate the relationship between disability, senescence and the life-course. To substantiate this claim, we apply new-materialist theory to discuss various dimensions of disability, such as impairment and social justice, relevant to the end phase of the life-course.