Recent trends in Independent Living advocacy in Europe

Description

In this presentation, I will discuss some recent trends in disability advocacy that I have identified over the years of collaborating with the European Network of Independent Living (ENIL) – a prominent international DPO that has been campaigning for disabled people’s right to Independent Living at the European level since its founding in 1989. These trends have been explored in my latest book Critical Theory and Independent Living (MUP, 2024), where I draw on my experience as Coordinator of ENIL’s Independent Living Research Network and on analysis of ENIL’s campaigns for deinstitutionalisation and personal assistance to outline the current contours and possible futures of Independent Living advocacy in Europe and beyond. These possible futures include intensifying conflicts over the interpretations of the CRPD’s provisions resulting from CRPD’s mainstreaming and incorporation under conditions of continuing disablement and ableism; as well as increasing ‘intersectionalisation’ and internationalisation of disability advocacy that resonate with critiques of capacity and with decolonial imperatives within disability studies and activism.

Period	3 Sept 2024
Event title	Leeds Disability Studies Conference (2024)
Event type	Conference
Location	Leeds, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International