On Our Own Behalf: Theory, Strategy, and Practice within the Disabled People's Movement in Britain

大曼彻斯特残疾人联盟（GMCDP）档案馆是与英国残疾人运动有关的最大的实物收藏。与只包含学术出版物和讲座的利兹大学残疾人档案馆不同，它拥有100多箱1974年至今来自地方和国家残疾人组织的文件：包括政治报告，政策讨论和理论出版物。尽管残疾研究最初承诺建立“与残疾人控制和经营的组织建立牢固的联系”，并“反映和发展他们的见解和兴趣”（巴恩斯：2008），学术研究和DPO活动家的项目之间的鸿沟正在扩大。这反映在2019年的《残疾与社会》特刊中，该特刊呼吁“更新”他们的关系，并重新集中残疾人活动家的声音。夏季开放的GMCDP的档案提供了一个独特的机会，以发展这种更新。学术活动家的分离是基于理论争议和缺乏可用的研究材料。许多残疾人研究（参见莎士比亚和沃森：2002年，阿默：2004年）明确拒绝唯物主义的残疾人组织共同的方法，赞成后结构主义的方法;而活动家的概念，他们的角色仍然很少在出版的研究。通过利用GMCDP档案探索以前不可用的活动家声明，并构建DPO行动主义的政治历史，我试图缩小这一差距，并制定一个哲学的方法来残疾，可以团聚残疾人行动主义和学术工作。

Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People's (GMCDP's) archive is the largest physical collection relating to Britain's Disabled People's Movement (DPM). Unlike the University of Leeds Disability Archive, which contains only academic publications and lectures, it holds over 100 boxes of papers from local and national Disabled People's Organisations (DPOs) from 1974 to the present: including political reports, policy discussions, and theoretical publications. Despite the initial promise of Disability Studies to build 'firm links with organizations controlled and run by disabled people' and 'to reflect and develop their insights and interests' (Barnes: 2008), the gulf between academic research and DPO activists' projects is widening. This is reflected in the 2019 special issue of Disability and Society, which calls for a 'renewal' of their relationship and a re-centering of the voice of disabled activists. The summer opening of GMCDP's archives offers a unique opportunity to develop this renewal. The academic-activist disjunct is predicated on theoretical controversies, and a lack of available research material. Many in Disability Studies (cf, Shakespeare and Watson: 2002, Armer: 2004) explicitly reject materialist approaches to disablement common to DPOs in favour of post-structuralist methodologies; while accounts of activists' conceptions of their roles remain rare within published research. By utilising the GMCDP archives to explore previously unavailable activist statements and construct a political history of DPO activism, I attempt to close this gap and develop a philosophical approach to disablement that can reunite disability activism and academic work.