The politics of disablement in the 'gig economy': examining how work and the body are experienced by disabled people in precarious employment

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This research project will look at the social reproduction of, and relationship between, the body, the self, and the dogma of work in the context of casualisation in the United Kingdom. To explore ideas, experiences and policies in relation to changing bodies at/in relation to work, I will follow feminist materialist and critical disability studies literature. According to Garland-Thomas (feminist disability studies scholar), 'like disability studies practitioners who are unaware of feminism, feminist scholars are often simply unacquainted with disability studies' perspective' (2002:2). It is precisely this point of departure that I wish to take in exploring the implications of self-employment, the work ethic, autonomy and possibilities for work refusal. Further, the centrality of work in capitalist social relations will be explored through Marxist Autonomist literature which is preoccupied with potentialities for changing the conditions of work in society. Data co-production will be created through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and diary entries of casualised workers in Britain whose bodies have been affected by precarity. These will reveal what a 'productive member of society' and a 'work ethic' may mean from the standpoint of casualised workers whose bodies have struggled with precarious work.