Disability is often described in a way that suggests that it is a permanent and relatively stable state. Many concepts and models of disability suggest this. Even when it is described as being socially constructed, the implication is that an impairment leads to a permanent status of being `disabled' within that social, cultural or historical milieu. This volume argues that the relationship between impairment (Physical state) and disability is neither fixed nor permanent but is fluid and not easily predicted. Furthermore, if this is true, we need to rethink how we are measuring or counting disability.
This volume attempts to reconceptualize disability not as a static but a dynamic phenomenon which is related to social, cultural, and historical contexts. It is part of the new social science emphasis on change and fluidity rather than stasis and stability. The papers in the volume examine disability at all levels of analysis. Several look at micro-level interactional processes which shape physical conditions into disabilities or impairments into normality, some look at cultural differences or changes over time in what constitutes disability, and some look at how social processes and institutions create or deny the status of disability. The papers support the conceptualization of the fluidity of disability and have implications for its measurement.
