Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The (Crip) Art of Reworking Vulnerability—And Perhaps, to Find a Way Out of It

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Vulnerabilities

Part of the book series: Integrated Science ((IS,volume 18))

  • 144 Accesses

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to mobilize the concept of disability and vulnerability, especially when they intertwine. For so doing, I will refer to experiments of care collectives as a fertile case study. The concept of interdependence will accompany the analyses of the essay—and I will account both for the richness and for the limitations it entails. First, I will address the debate on vulnerability, mainly within Feminist Theory and Disability Studies. I will take into account the risks of imposing vulnerability upon specific social groups—for example, disabled people—as it can reinforce their disempowerment and minority position. I will then examine vulnerability as an ontological and contextual phenomenon, highlighting how both are especially productive in critically addressing disability. I will also take into account how disability and vulnerability are frequently entrenched in dependence: in this regard, I will underline how care relationships, which are often considered maximum examples of dependency, can both enhance and reduce the vulnerability that can be experienced by disabled people. I will pinpoint how the narrative of vulnerability can produce neglect of disabled people’s knowledge and skills, also in the context of care. Therefore, I will focus on the value of their expertise in this field, examining examples of collective care crafted in recent years and—despite the disabling and threatening nature of the event—even implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

No one moves without a supportive environment and set of technologies. And when those environments start to fall apart or are emphatically unsupportive, we are left to “fall” in some ways, and our very capacity to exercise most basic rights is imperiled. And we could certainly make a list of how this idea of a body, supported yet acting, supported and acting, is at work implicitly or explicitly in any number of political movements.

Judith Butler, Rethinking Vulnerability and Resistance, 2016

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Crip, a contract form of the derogative ‘cripple’, is a term reclaimed by some members of the disability community. It is rooted in activism and politicization of disability.

  2. 2.

    In the USA, Medicaid is the federal and state program that provides health insurance for people and families with low income.

References

  1. Butler J (2004) Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  2. Butler J (2009) Frames of war: when is life grievable? Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  3. Held V (1987) Non-contractual society. In: Hanen M, Nielsen K (eds) Science, morality and feminist theory. University of Calgary Press, Calgary, pp 111–137

    Google Scholar 

  4. Feder-Kittay E (1999) Love’s labor: essays on women, equality, and dependency. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  5. Mackenzie C et al (eds) (2014) Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  6. Koivunen A et al (2018) Vulnerability as a political language. In: Koivunen A, Kyrölä K, Ryberg I (eds) The power of vulnerability. Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp 1–26

    Google Scholar 

  7. Butler J et al (2016) Introduction. In: Butler J, Gambetti Z, Sabsay L (eds) Vulnerability in resistance. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 1–11

    Google Scholar 

  8. Shildrick M (2002) Embodying the monster. Encounters with the vulnerable self. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

  9. Shakespeare T (2014) Disability rights and wrongs. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  10. Rohrer J (2011) Toward a full-inclusion feminism: a feminist deployment of disability analysis. Fem Stud 31(1):34–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Moser I (2020) Against normalisation: subverting norms of ability and disability. Sci Cult 9(2):201–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Shildrick M (2015) “Why should our bodies end at skin?”, Embodiment, boundaries, and somatechnics. Hypatia 30(1):13–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Butler J (2016) Rethinking vulnerability and resistance. In: Butler J, Gambetti Z, Sabsay L (eds) Vulnerability in resistance. Duke University Press, Durham, pp 12–27

    Google Scholar 

  14. Casalini B (2018) Le teorie femministe contemporanee, dal paradigma della sovranità al paradigma della vulnerabilità. Bernardini et al, a cura di, Vulnerabilità: etica, politica, diritto. IF Press, Roma, pp 27–48

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ahlvik-Harju C (2016) Disturbing bodies: reimagining comforting narratives of embodiment through feminist disability studies. Scand J Disabil Res 18(3):222–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Cavarero A (2009) Inclinations: a critique of rectitude. Stanford University Press, Redwood City

    Google Scholar 

  17. Wendell S (1997) The rejected body. Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. Routledge, New York and London

    Google Scholar 

  18. Scully JL (2014) Disability and vulnerability: on bodies, dependence, and power. In: Mackenzie C et al (eds) Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 204–221

    Google Scholar 

  19. Shildrick M (2009) Dangerous discourses of disability, subjectivity and sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  20. Butler J et al (eds) (2016) Vulnerability in resistance. Duke University Press, Durham

    Google Scholar 

  21. Wong A (2017) My medicaid, my life. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/opinion/my-medicaid-my-life.html

  22. Bernardini MG (2018) Disabilità, vulnerabilità e diritti (umani). Tra conflitti e (nuove) opportunità. Ead et al, a cura di, Vulnerabilità: etica, politica, diritto. IF Press, Roma, pp 211–236

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kafer A (2013) Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  24. Goodley D (2011) Disability studies. An interdisciplinary introduction. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

  25. Oliver M (1990) The politics of disablement. Palgrave Macmillan, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  26. Barnes E (2016) The minority body: a theory of disability. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  27. Chapman R (2020) Neurodiversity, disability, wellbeing. In: Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist H et al (eds) Neurodiversity studies. Routledge, London and New York, pp 57–72

    Google Scholar 

  28. Piepzna-Samarasinha LL (2018) Care work. Dreaming disability justice. Arsenal Pulp, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  29. Kleinman A, Kleinman J (1991) Suffering and its professional transformation. Cult Med Psychiatry 15(3):275–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Clare E (2015) Exile and pride: disability, queerness, and liberation. South End, Boston

    Book  Google Scholar 

  31. Montalti C (2021) Vulnerabilità ‘tecnogena’ e condivisione tecnologica nell’esperienza della disabilità. Shift. Int J Philos Stud 8(2):159–171

    Google Scholar 

  32. Montalti C (forthcoming) Neurodivergence through Octavia E. Butler’s speculative futures: community, vulnerability, and social change. In: Creechan L, Bergenmar J, Stenning A (eds) (Neuro)divergent textualities. Representations, readings, responses. Bloomsbury, London

    Google Scholar 

  33. Garland-Thomson R (2011) Misfits: a feminist materialist disability concept. Hypatia 26(3):591–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Fritsch K (2010) Intimate assemblages: disability, intercorporeality, and the labour of attendant care. Crit Disabil Discourses 2. https://cdd.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cdd/article/view/23854

  35. Baggs M (2012–2013) https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/tag/caregivers/

  36. Clare E (2017) Brilliant imperfection. Grappling with cure. Duke University Press, Durham and London

    Google Scholar 

  37. Haraway DJ (2016) Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press, Durham and London

    Google Scholar 

  38. Butler J (2017) Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London

    Google Scholar 

  39. Shildrick M (2010) Some reflections on the socio-cultural and bioscientific limits of bodily integrity. Body Soc 16(3):11–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Allan K, al-Ayad D (eds) (2015) Accessing the future. Futurefire.net

    Google Scholar 

  41. Durrow R, Berne P (2020) We love like barnacles. Into the crip universe: cripping the anthropocene (podcast)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Duyvis C (2016) Fiction, like life, tells disabled people their lives have less value. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/mar/14/disability-autism-sci-fi-corinne-duyvis

  43. Weise J et al (2019) Cyborgs. Disability visibility project

    Google Scholar 

  44. Wong A (2019) The rise and fall of the plastic straw. Catal Feminism Theory Technoscience 5(1):2

    Google Scholar 

  45. Taylor S, Orning SES (2020) Being human, being animal: species membership in extraordinary times. New Literary History 51(4):663–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Kukla E (2020) My life is more ‘disposable’ during this pandemic. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-disabled-health-care.html

  47. Ware SM, Clare E (2020) Disabled: not a burden, not disposable. Transgender Law Center. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA8PkucFrCk&ab_channel=TransgenderLawCenter

  48. Mingus M (2022) You are not entitled to our deaths: COVID, abled supremacy & interdependence. Leaving Evidence. https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/you-are-not-entitled-to-our-deaths-covid-abled-supremacy-interdependence/

  49. Tremain S (ed) (2021) Philosophies of disability and the global pandemic [special issue]. Int J Crit Divers Stud 4(2)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Human Rights Watch (2021) Disability rights during the pandemic. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/03/24/disability-rights-during-pandemic/inequality-dignity-and-access-life-saving

  51. United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (2020) Covid-19 and the rights of persons with disabilities: guidance. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Dis-ability/COVID-19_and_The_Rights_of_Persons_with_Disabilities.pdf

  52. Alfonseca K (2022) Disabled people being left behind in vaccine rollout one year later. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/disabled-community-left-vaccine-rollout-year/story?id=81974345

  53. Purlang A (2022) 6 ways responses to covid-19 have been ableist, and why it matters. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2022/01/31/6-ways-responses-to-covid-19-have-been-ableist-and-why-it-matters/?sh=6203060a6129

  54. Shapiro J (2020) One man’s COVID-19 death raises the worst fears of many people with disabilities. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/31/896882268/one-mans-covid-19-death-raises-the-worst-fears-of-many-people-with-disabilities

  55. Piepzna-Samarasinha LL (2022) The future is disabled. Arsenal Pulp, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  56. Dodds S (2014) Dependence, care, and vulnerability. In: Mackenzie C et al (eds) Vulnerability: new essays in ethics and feminist philosophy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 181–203

    Google Scholar 

  57. Clare E (2016) Disability, queerness, and natural worlds. https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/listen-author-eli-clare-cure-disability-queerness-and-natural-worlds

  58. Adams R (2020) The art of interspecies care. New Literary History 51(4):695–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Nishida A (2022) Just care. Messy entanglements of disability, dependency, and desire. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  60. Kafai S (2022) Crip kinship: the disability justice & art activism of sins invalid. Arsenal Pulp, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  61. Mingus M (2017) Access intimacy, interdependence and disability justice. Leaving Evidence. https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/access-intimacy-interdependence-and-disability-justice/

  62. Erickson L (2018) Welcome to the new ELA post-doctoral fellow. Vision Passion Action. https://radssite.wordpress.com/2018/09/24/welcome-to-the-new-ela-post-doctoral-fellow-dr-loree-erickson/

  63. Hande MJ, Mire M (2013) “The pace we need to go”: creating care culture. Action Speaks Louder, 10–11

    Google Scholar 

  64. https://creatingcollectiveaccess.wordpress.com/

  65. Brown LXZ (2017) Ableist shame and disruptive bodies: survivorship at the intersection of queer, trans, and disabled existence. In: Johnson AJ et al (eds) Religion, disability, and interpersonal violence. Springer, Berlin, pp 163–178

    Google Scholar 

  66. Sins Invalid (2015) 10 principles of disability justice. https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice

  67. Clare E (2021) May Day, 2020. The South Atlantic Quarterly 120(2):255–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

    Chiara Montalti

Authors
  1. Chiara Montalti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara Montalti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy

    Stefania Achella

  2. Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Chantal Marazia

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Montalti, C. (2023). The (Crip) Art of Reworking Vulnerability—And Perhaps, to Find a Way Out of It. In: Achella, S., Marazia, C. (eds) Vulnerabilities. Integrated Science, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39378-5_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation