Call for contributions

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Disability is estimated to affect approximately 15% of the world's population (WHO and World Bank, 2011). Because it substantially alters the global economic and social development (Albrecht, 2014), the issue of disability cannot be separated from an in-depth understanding of the consumption practices and experiences of individuals, regardless of the nature of their impairment.

A significant part of the sociological, anthropological, historical and philosophical work on disability published since the 1970s falls within the field of disability studies (e.g., Winance, 2016). This interdisciplinary field of research "challenges the popular view that disability equates with human failing" (Goodley, 2017, p. xi). This prolific field of research gives rise to eclectic and critical work with strong theoretical contributions. A major paradigm shift has been the transition from the individual to the social model of disability. While the former attributes the occurrence of disability to the individual's physical/bodily impairment, the latter considers that disability results from "society's failure to provide appropriate services and adequately ensure [that] the needs of disabled people are fully taken into account in its social organization" (Oliver, 1996, p. 32). However, the social model of disability is in turn subject to strong criticism because of its insufficient consideration of the impairment and its subjective experience (e.g., Anastasiou & Kauffman, 2013; Shakespeare & Watson, 2001). According to Feely (2016, p. 863), adopting an assemblage-based perspective would offer a nuanced view of disability by considering it "as a material phenomenon without a return to essentialism."

For their part, scholars in marketing and consumer behavior have, for several decades, focused on the consumption of people with disabilities, employing various perspectives such as consumer normalcy (Baker, 2006), stigma (Nau et al., 2016), identity continuities and discontinuities (Downey & Catterall, 2006), coping (Falchetti et al., 2016), embodiment (Beudaert, 2020), psycho-emotional (Higgins, 2020), as well as vulnerability (Elms & Tinson, 2012). The recent special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management titled "The Disabling Marketplace" extensively reflects the theoretical potential of this research field. Therefore, we aim for the ICDC2024 conference to set another milestone, further advancing the conceptualization and understanding of disability and consumption.

Given its interdisciplinary nature, this conference is open to all epistemological and methodological approaches. Submissions addressing other levels of analysis than the final consumer and coming from other sub-disciplines of management than marketing and consumer behavior (e.g., innovation management, human resources management, corporate strategy) are particularly welcome, provided that they help shed light on consumption phenomena related to disability. Work submitted may address a variety of impairments, including—to name but a few—motor, sensory, cognitive, mental, neurodegenerative and aging-related disorders. As an indication, and without being an exhaustive list, the following themes can be addressed:

• Consumption as a space of emancipation vs. vulnerability for consumers with disabilities
• Advocacy, activism, and changemaking in markets and policy
• Ableist/crip approaches to disability and the way they are shaped, perpetuated and deconstructed through individuals’ interactions with the marketplace
• Representations of disability in cultural works/computer-mediated communication on disability (e.g., disability memes, depiction of disability in mass media)
• Inclusive tourism and access for tourists with disabilities
• Service captivity, benevolence and consumers’ interactions with frontline staff
• Disability, online shopping and digitalization
• Intersectionality, disability and consumption
• Disability across the consumer journey or life trajectory
• Global marketplaces and the geographies of disability
• Care relationships and support for people with disabilities
• Embodied experience of impairment and related sensations
• Appropriation, bricolage and disability
• Design and ergonomic solutions for people with disabilities
• Visible vs. invisible impairments
• Ethical aspects of research dedicated to consumers with disabilities
• Disability-related research methods (e.g., caregivers’ role during the interview, participatory approaches, challenges raised by communication difficulties)

Submission guidelines

In addition to traditional communication formats, the conference is particularly open to proposals in alternative forms, such as art-based presentations or videography. In any case, extended abstracts should not exceed 2,000 words (excluding tables, figures and references). Proposals should be anonymous, except for the first page which should include:
- the title of the proposal
- contact information and affiliations of each author
- in the case of multiple authors, the name of the corresponding author

Submissions to ICDC2024 are now closed.

References

Albrecht, G. L. (2014). Préface. In I. Ville, E. Fillion, & J.-F. Ravaud, Introduction à la sociologie du handicap: Histoire, politiques et expérience (pp. 9–13). De Boeck.
Anastasiou, D., & Kauffman, J. M. (2013). The social model of disability: Dichotomy between impairment and disability. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 38(4), 441–459.
Baker, S. M. (2006). Consumer normalcy: Understanding the value of shopping through narratives of consumers with visual impairments. Journal of Retailing, 82(1), 37–50.
Beudaert, A. (2020). Towards an embodied understanding of consumers with disabilities : Insights from the field of disability studies. Consumption Markets & Culture, 23(4), 361-375.
Downey, H., & Catterall, M. (2006). Home confined consumers: Identity continuities and discontinuities. In K. M. Ekström & H. Brembeck, European Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 7, pp. 577–581). Association for Consumer Research.
Elms, J., & Tinson, J. (2012). Consumer vulnerability and the transformative potential of Internet shopping: An exploratory case study. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(11–12), 1354–1376.
Falchetti, C., Ponchio, M. C., & Botelho, N. L. P. (2016). Understanding the vulnerability of blind consumers: Adaptation in the marketplace, personal traits and coping strategies. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(3–4), 313–334.
Feely, M. (2016). Disability studies after the ontological turn: A return to the material world and material bodies without a return to essentialism. Disability & Society, 31(7), 863–
883.
Goodley, D. (2017). Disability studies: An interdisciplinary introduction. Sage Publications Ltd.
Higgins, L. (2020). Psycho-emotional disability in the marketplace. European Journal of Marketing.
Nau, J.-P., Derbaix, C., & Thévenot, G. (2016). Market offers and the construction of a stigmatised identity: Insights from the case of motor-disabled persons. Recherche et Applications En Marketing, 31(4), 47–64.
Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability: From theory to practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Shakespeare, T., & Watson, N. (2001). The social model of disability: An outdated ideology? In B. M. Altman & S. N. Barnartt, Research in social science and disability: Exploring theories and expanding methodologies (Vol. 2, pp. 9–28). Emerald Group Publishing.
WHO and World Bank. (2011). World Report on Disability. World Health Organization.
Winance, M. (2016). Rethinking disability: Lessons from the past, questions for the future. Contributions and limits of the social model, the sociology of science and technology, and the ethics of care. ALTER. European Journal of Disability Research, 10(2), 99–110.

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