Reconstructing the Historical-Materialist Tradition in Disability Studies

The historical-materialist tradition transformed Disability Studies by locating disability within social relations rather than individual pathology. Subsequent developments in Critical Disability Studies have expanded this analysis through greater attention to embodiment, intersecting inequalities, colonialism, and global difference, while also exposing limitations in earlier materialist formulations. This article argues that these developments provide grounds not for abandoning historical materialism but for reconstructing it. The analysis situates disablement within world-system stratification, hierarchies of humanity, and material relations of production and social reproduction, while examining institutions as mechanisms through which these structural relations are organised in everyday life. The resulting framework seeks to renew historical-materialist analysis within contemporary Critical Disability Studies.