Mind and Body Spaces Geographies of Illness, Impairment and Disability

Just as geographies of race, gender, class and sexuality have drawn attention to how complex power relations in society are spatialised, so geographies of illness and impairment offer a deeper understanding of the world. In recent years geographers have increasingly engaged with both the theoretical debates surrounding ill or impaired bodies, and also the lived realities of ill/impaired experience. Mind and Body Spaces highlights new international research (from Britain, USA, Canada, Australia) on bodily impairment, mental health and disabling social worlds. Its fusion of geographical analyses provide a commentary on a range of different spatial 'settings', including the nation, urban and rural spaces, work spaces, the 'caring' institution, the street and the home, in which different minds and bodies are always located. The contributors discuss varied issues concerning physical impairment and mental health, ranging from historical conceptions of the body and behaviour to contemporary political activism. This range of concerns also includes matters of identity and employment, accessible housing, parenthood and child carers, psychiatric medication use, masculinity, sexuality, autobiography, social exclusion and inclusion. in a deliberate attempt to extend conventional geographical research concerning disability, these chapters build into a collection which clearly illustrates the complex interconnections between mind/body states and wider socio-cultural, economic, political and medical environments. The bringing together of mind and body, and of illness and impairment, signals an attempt to destabilise academic traditions which have kept these entities apart, and also to invigorate debate about diverse geographies of ableism.Butler, Ruth is the author of 'Mind and Body Spaces Geographies of Illness, Impairment and Disability' with ISBN 9780415179034 and ISBN 0415179033.