Understanding disability/impairment, inclusively
The case of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12313813 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joanne Hunt (0000-0003-3868-5765, Uppsala University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 281-287 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Disability & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0968-7599 • E-ISSN: 1360-0508 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09687599.2025.2492653 |
| OpenAlex | W4409709428 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Whilst myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has recently attracted high-profile media coverage, dominant accounts do not tell the whole story of how this group of disabled people came to occupy -albeit unequallysociety's fringes.This article, platforming some of the sidelined work of disabled activist-scholars, offers an understanding of oppressions confronting people with ME/CFS that is more inclusive of the politics impacting wider marginalised communities, offering possibilities for coalition-building with other social movements.Moreover, overlooked literature reveals intersecting power systems that differentially shape how ME/ CFS is experienced, promoting an understanding of disability/ impairment more inclusive of diversity.Inspired by the exhortation of Mike Oliver to record our own histories -lest they be written for us -this contribution seeks to challenge hierarchies and exclusions confronting the author as an academically-sidelined person with ME/CFS.Recently, high-profile coverage of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), partially motivated by the death and inquest of a young woman with this diagnosis in the UK (see Watson 2024), has brought renewed mainstream attention to this contested knowledge arena.The history of ME/ CFS is permeated with epistemic injustice (harms sustained by people as knowers) and wider social-structural injustices, shaped by hierarchies that include but extend beyond disability and gender (Kennedy 2012).Yet dominantly-situated knowledge-producers repeatedly sideline the epistemic contributions of marginalised activist-scholars, re-inscribing these hierarchies.As a person with severe ME/CFS, lacking academic credibility markers and writing on ME/CFS from under-represented perspectives, I have found myself relegated to the fringes of ME/CFS academic and advocacy knowledge spaces.Inspired by recent concerns raised over the politics of knowledge production within social
Chronic fatigue syndrome · Encephalomyelitis · Multiple sclerosis · Physical medicine and rehabilitation · Psychiatry · Cerebral Palsy and Movement Disorders · Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research · Medicine · Neurogenetic and Muscular Disorders Research · Psychology
The War on Disabled People
On the Government of Disability
Cash not care
Will psychology ever ‘join hands’ with disability studies? Opportunities and challenges in working towards structurally competent and disability-affirmative psychotherapy for energy limiting conditions
The Government of Disability
Holistic or harmful? Examining socio-structural factors in the biopsychosocial model of chronic illness, ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ and disability
Gender, feminism and the project of critical disability studies (CDS)
Toward the emancipation of “medically unexplained” and energy-limiting conditions
Inheriting discriminatory socio-political landscapes as ‘undeserving’ disabled people
Mapping the Margins
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |