Abstract

In this article, we explore the social production of able-bodiedness triggered by an art-based research project carried out in an inclusive Chilean school. Grounded in Deleuzoguattarian assemblage theory, we map the multiplicities produced by the collision between social justice research practices and ‘vulnerability’ as a pervading category within the contemporary education policyscape. Analyzing a short film created by students labeled as ‘at risk’, we expose that educational policies aimed at addressing social vulnerability invent ‘the future’ as only habitable for those who materialize able-bodiedness. However, crip futurities also emerge throughout the short film, showing that non-normative expressions of the human can actualize themselves using research as a milieu. These simultaneous and asymmetrical ways of expressing humanness illuminate how intricate the affective relation between research and neoliberal policy is. We conclude by discussing the power of research-assemblages for disorienting ableist biopedagogies and legitimizing futures other than those of compulsory able-bodiedness.