Call for Papers: Research in Social Science and Disability Special Issue on Disability and Community

Research in Social Science and Disability invites proposals for articles for a special issue on Disability and Community to be published in 2012. Proposals are welcome from individuals representing all social science disciplines, including anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology as well as related fields such as area studies, communications, law, and philosophy.

The evolving and politically contested notion of community sits at the center of much of recent scholarship on disability. The special issue will bring together scholarship from multiple disciplines to explore issues related to Disability and Community, including but not limited to the interaction of systems of citizenship and rights with community participation; identification, representation, culture, and community; processes of community inclusion and exclusion; the relationship between political advocacy and disability community; the role of public policies, the law, and service delivery systems in promoting the incorporation or exclusion of people with disabilities into broader communities; cross-national studies of disability communities; the development of community among and across people with varying disabilities; the impact of recent demographic and economic changes on people with disabilities; the rise of virtual communities among people with disabilities; and the intersectionality of class, gender, race/ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation with disability community.

Paper proposals of 300-500 words should be submitted to co-editors Allison Carey accare@ship.edu or Richard Scotch, richard.scotch@utdallas.edu no later than October 1, 2010. Individuals whose proposals are selected will be notified in November 2010 and will be expected to submit their completed manuscript no later than March 31, 2011. All manuscripts submitted will be subject to peer review and possible revision prior to final acceptance for publication.

Research in Social Science and Disability, Barbara Altman and Sharon Barnartt, overall editors, focuses on linkages between disability and the social and cultural environment. It is based upon the premise that disability is not purely a medical phenomena, but rather is based on the interaction between the social and physical environment and a person’s physical or mental state. This journal considers aspects of disabilities as viewed through the lens of the social sciences, broadly defined, including: history, economics, geography, political science, psychology, anthropology, sociology, demography, human development, family studies, and philosophy. It will consider all forms of disability, including mental and physical. Research in Social Science and Disability will not consider medical, clinical or rehabilitation aspects of disability, case studies, practice descriptions, or program evaluations.

Submissions can include theoretical and critical papers, analyses based on qualitative as well as quantitative research methodologies, methodological or conceptual papers, and comprehensive reviews of the literature. All articles will be peer-reviewed by reviewers from the same disciplinary background.