Making spaces in exclusionary places: the spatial tactics/stories of disabled people and their families in Hong Kong

Journal article


Cockain, A. 2022. Making spaces in exclusionary places: the spatial tactics/stories of disabled people and their families in Hong Kong. Disability & Society. 38 (10), pp. 1913-1933. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2061331
AuthorsCockain, A.
Abstract

This article reports on an exploratory qualitative research project conducted in Hong Kong. This investigated accounts of place-based exclusions, especially focusing upon the tactics disabled people and their families deploy to cope with exclusionary places and practice. I elaborate upon three thematic clusters emerging from group interviews. The first addresses place-oriented decision making. The second explores the emotional geographies that specific socio-spatial orders register and generate. Finally, I assess how far participants’ spatial tactics and stories may be regarded as either subversive or transformative. While participants’ practice often maintains disabling geographies, their spatial tactics also ‘speaks’ against congratulatory accounts of social inclusion. However, participants’ accounts of harrowing place-based discriminations register the extent and magnitude of barriers which combine to constitute the disabling conditions in which their spatial tactics/stories take place.

Points of interest

This article documents the place-based exclusions and discriminations disabled persons and their families routinely experience in Hong Kong.

This article explores the decisions participants made about where to go and not go; the feelings that they and others experienced in place; and the ways they tried to realise inclusive lives in places which often seemed to exclude them.

The disabled persons and their families who participated in this study experienced many strains and stresses in public places.

Participants also described their feelings, and those they try to bring about in others, in public places.

Participants not only cope with exclusions but also sometimes try to transform exclusionary places.

KeywordsHong Kong; Geographies of disability; Spatial tactics; Spatial stories; Emotional geographies; Place-work
Year2022
JournalDisability & Society
Journal citation38 (10), pp. 1913-1933
PublisherTaylor & Francis
ISSN0968-7599
1360-0508
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2061331
Official URLhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2022.2061331
Publication dates
Online11 Apr 2022
Print26 Nov 2023
Publication process dates
Deposited21 Apr 2022
Accepted30 Mar 2022
Publisher's version
Output statusPublished
Additional information

Publications router.

Permalink -

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/90yw0/making-spaces-in-exclusionary-places-the-spatial-tactics-stories-of-disabled-people-and-their-families-in-hong-kong

Download files


Publisher's version
  • 63
    total views
  • 43
    total downloads
  • 2
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

The ‘service user’ label through critical constructivist lenses
Cockain, Alex 2024. The ‘service user’ label through critical constructivist lenses. Critical and Radical Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000047
Learning disability and everyday life
Cockain, A. 2024. Learning disability and everyday life. New York Taylor & Francis.
Troubling narratives about dis/ability and the social encounter through conversations between narrative inquiry, critical disability studies, and geographies of disability
Cockain, A. 2023. Troubling narratives about dis/ability and the social encounter through conversations between narrative inquiry, critical disability studies, and geographies of disability. Disability & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2275523
Commentary on diversity and inclusion policies in publicly traded New Zealand companies: inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities
Cockain, A. 2023. Commentary on diversity and inclusion policies in publicly traded New Zealand companies: inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. Tizard Learning Disability Review. 28 (1/2), pp. 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLDR-02-2023-0007
Accounting for an encounter involving a social worker and man with learning disabilities and crafting tools for ethical social work practice
Cockain, A. 2022. Accounting for an encounter involving a social worker and man with learning disabilities and crafting tools for ethical social work practice. Social Work Education. 43 (3), pp. 785-803. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2022.2146085
Personal independence payment forms, a de/re/constructive reading: re/positioning claimants, social workers and social work practice ‘through’ policy discourse
Cockain, A. 2021. Personal independence payment forms, a de/re/constructive reading: re/positioning claimants, social workers and social work practice ‘through’ policy discourse. The British Journal of Social Work. 52 (6), pp. 3191-3209. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcab221
De-fusing and re-fusing face-to-face encounters involving autistic persons in Hong Kong
Cockain, A. 2021. De-fusing and re-fusing face-to-face encounters involving autistic persons in Hong Kong. Tizard Learning Disability Review. 26 (1), pp. 34-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLDR-06-2020-0011
Disturbing geographies and in/stability in and around a supermarket with a middle-aged man with learning impairments
Cockain, A. 2021. Disturbing geographies and in/stability in and around a supermarket with a middle-aged man with learning impairments. Cultural Geographies. 28 (4), pp. 629-643. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474020987255
Temporalities, a disability chronotope, and empathetic horizons in Still Human
Cockain, A. 2021. Temporalities, a disability chronotope, and empathetic horizons in Still Human. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. 15 (1), pp. 19-37. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2021.2
In the haze: on narrativization and air pollution in Shanghai
Cockain, A. 2020. In the haze: on narrativization and air pollution in Shanghai. Positions: Asia Critique. 28 (2), pp. 447-479. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-8112503
Reading (readings of) UK Channel 4's 2012 and 2016 Paralympic advertisements: On the undecidability of texts and dis/ability itself
Cockain, A. 2020. Reading (readings of) UK Channel 4's 2012 and 2016 Paralympic advertisements: On the undecidability of texts and dis/ability itself. Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. 14 (3), pp. 261-279. https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2020.17
Youth, exams and the pressure to conform
Cockain, A. 2020. Youth, exams and the pressure to conform. in: Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society Routledge.
Regarding Mr. Wu, a dragon and conversations in traffic: Social acceleration, deceleration and re-acceleration in Shanghai
Cockain, A. 2018. Regarding Mr. Wu, a dragon and conversations in traffic: Social acceleration, deceleration and re-acceleration in Shanghai. Time & Society. 27 (3), pp. 363-383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X15611394
Riding and reading the Shanghai metro: signs, subjectivities and subversions on and around line # 8
Cockain, A. 2018. Riding and reading the Shanghai metro: signs, subjectivities and subversions on and around line # 8. Social Semiotics. 28 (4), pp. 533-554. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2017.1366392
Walking small with ‘Paul’, a man with ‘severe learning difficulties’: on (not) passing in purportedly public places
Cockain, A. 2018. Walking small with ‘Paul’, a man with ‘severe learning difficulties’: on (not) passing in purportedly public places. Disability & Society. 33 (5), pp. 705-722. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1455578
Shallow inclusion (or integration) and deep exclusion: en-dis-abling identities through government webpages in Hong Kong
Cockain, A. 2018. Shallow inclusion (or integration) and deep exclusion: en-dis-abling identities through government webpages in Hong Kong. Social Inclusion. 6 (2), pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v6i2.1282
Ethnography as process and product: Residential neighborhoods and reflexivity in Shanghai
Cockain, A. 2018. Ethnography as process and product: Residential neighborhoods and reflexivity in Shanghai. SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526440464
Identity work at a Normal University in Shanghai
Cockain, A. 2016. Identity work at a Normal University in Shanghai. Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 47 (3), pp. 314-328. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12154
Making autism through Ocean Heaven (海洋天堂, Haiyang tiantang) and the possibilities of realizing disability differently
Cockain, A. 2016. Making autism through Ocean Heaven (海洋天堂, Haiyang tiantang) and the possibilities of realizing disability differently. Disability & Society. 31 (4), pp. 535-552. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2016.1182012
Urban Chinese youth
Cockain, A. 2016. Urban Chinese youth. in: Furlong, A. (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood Abingdon Routledge. pp. 172-181
Regarding subjectivities and social life on the screen: the ambivalences of spectatorship in the People’s Republic of China
Cockain, A. 2014. Regarding subjectivities and social life on the screen: the ambivalences of spectatorship in the People’s Republic of China. in: Marolt, P. and Herold, D. K. (ed.) China Online: Locating Society in Online Spaces Routledge. pp. 63-80
Becoming quixotic? A discussion on the discursive construction of disability and how this is maintained through social relations
Cockain, A. 2014. Becoming quixotic? A discussion on the discursive construction of disability and how this is maintained through social relations. Disability & Society. 29 (9), pp. 1473-1485. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2014.953245
Ontological security and residential experiences in China: The ‘old’ and the ‘new’ in Shanghai’s Luwan district
Cockain, A. 2012. Ontological security and residential experiences in China: The ‘old’ and the ‘new’ in Shanghai’s Luwan district. China Information. 26 (3), pp. 331-358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X12459931
Young Chinese in urban China
Cockain, A. 2012. Young Chinese in urban China. Abingdon Routledge.
Students' ambivalence toward their experiences in secondary education: views from a group of young Chinese students studying on an international foundation programme in Beijing
Cockain, A. 2011. Students' ambivalence toward their experiences in secondary education: views from a group of young Chinese students studying on an international foundation programme in Beijing. The China Journal. 65. https://doi.org/10.1086/tcj.65.25790559