Disability hypersurfaces: the role of housing and aids in the performance of corporeal practices and identity

Abstract

Davidson (2003) indicates that umbrellas, cars and homes are subjective spaces that provide a sense of having secure bodily boundaries to agoraphobics when in a depersonalisation crisis. In this context, such subjective spaces work as extensions of the body. This paper seeks to build on this idea to look at disabled people’s experiences suggesting that wheelchairs, sticks and other aids and the places where they live can be considered as bodily ‘hypersurfaces’ that take part in shaping their identity and the ways in which corporeal practices are performed. In doing so, the paper is divided into three sections. First, it presents a theoretical framework as a means to explore the boundaries of the body. Second, drawing on empirical material from an ongoing study in Chile focused on disabled people, the paper illustrates the particular ways in which disability aids and dwellings become body extensions in material, practical and emotional ways. Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting that the multi-dimensionality of the body is not only expressed by the different materialities that compound disability ‘hypersurfaces’, but also at different geographical scales.

Más información

Fecha de publicación: 2019
Año de Inicio/Término: September, 2019
Idioma: English