Interdependence
Budworth, P. and Larrington-Spencer, H. 2025. Interdependence. in: Bennett, G. and Goodall, E. (ed.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability Cham Palgrave Macmillan.
Budworth, P. and Larrington-Spencer, H. 2025. Interdependence. in: Bennett, G. and Goodall, E. (ed.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability Cham Palgrave Macmillan.
| Chapter title | Interdependence |
|---|---|
| Authors | Budworth, P. and Larrington-Spencer, H. |
| Editors | Bennett, G. and Goodall, E. |
| Abstract | Interdependence is an interdisciplinary concept that encapsulates the careful, complex, and reciprocal relationships between (disabled and non-disabled) people, animals, technologies, and things. We begin this entry by outlining the historical underpinnings of the term, highlighting how medical and social models of disability have shaped understandings of dependence, independence, and interdependence over time. We then offer some definitions of and approaches to interdependence, drawing on work by crip theorists and activists, critical disability, and youth scholars to do so. Throughout, we highlight how imaginaries of independence and dependence have been weaponized in politics and by the media to perpetuate ableist (and ageist) neo-liberal agendas, which in turn sustain compulsory able-bodied/mindedness as the norm. In this entry, we consider the intimate entanglement of interdependence and care, evidencing this through work on “crip kinship,” more specifically, how reciprocal (online) networks of disabled people are empowering and supporting each other during times of (and after) austerity in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, we explore “collective access making” as a necessity in disabled people’s everyday lives, due to the emphasis it places on corporeal and incorporeal diversity, highlighting interdependence as a central component of access making. Overall, we demonstrate the vitalness of interdependence across disabled and non-disabled people’s lives. |
| Book title | The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 17 Oct 2025 |
| Place of publication | Cham |
| ISBN | 9783031408588 |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40858-8_232-1 |
| Web address (URL) | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40858-8_232-1 |