When Categories Constrain Care

We think of categories like height, weight and sex as integral to health assessment. Drawing on insights from disability history and history of science, When Categories Constrain Care explores how these categories were constructed, and how they have influenced subsequent provision and compensation for the disabled. It locates the making of these categories in two distinct areas: eugenics and coal-mining compensation. These two areas have been chosen because in the case of eugenics, researchers were attempting to prove the influence of heredity over the environment while in the case of compensation disputes, miners and trade unionists sought to prove the influence of the environment over heredity. This contrast illuminates how these categories constructed disability as either biological or social, which had a corresponding impact on whether disablement was located in the individual, or whether it was lcoated in the environment and ways of living and working.

When Categories Constrain Care is supported by a Wellcome University Award (2023–2028) awarded to Coreen McGuire. More information about the project, including events and activities, is available on Coreen McGuire’s personal website.