Abstract
In this article I argue that disabled people in the United Kingdom have been tipped into an abyss of counterfeit citizenship. They have been smeared as ‘false mendicants’ – an old trick well documented in the historical archives of ableism. Neoliberalism has used this repertoire of invalidation – its noxious taint of cunning and fraud – as the ‘moral justification’ for welfare reform and for the pillory and notoriety into which the entire disabled community has been placed. Austerity – through the neoliberal politics of resentment – has made disabled people its scapegoat. I argue that a historical precedent for the contemporary demonisation of disabled people as counterfeit citizens can be found in the early modern period in the mythology of the ‘sturdy beggar’.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 991-1004 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Disability and Society |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 Jul 2015 |
Keywords
- disability
- citizenship
- society