Call for papers: Being (Dis)abled: Contemporary Definitions, Support, and Barriers
CfP: Being (Dis)abled: Contemporary Definitions, Support, and Barriers
Guest Editors:
Kalina Kukiełko, University of Szczecin, Poland
Ellen McKinney, University of Alabama, USA
The editorial board of “Przegląd Socjologiczny” invites submissions for a thematic issue devoted to the Sociology of Disability. This issue aims to critically examine the social dimensions of disability, exploring how disability is constructed, perceived, experienced, and contested within various cultural, institutional, and political contexts. Rather than merely a condition of the human body, social norms, values, and power relations fundamentally shape disability. Sociological inquiry reveals how societies define and respond to bodily and cognitive differences—often reproducing exclusion and inequality—while disability communities challenge these narratives and advocate for rights, recognition, and more inclusive futures.
This issue provides space for a multidimensional, interdisciplinary debate on contemporary understanding, study, and analysis of “disability” in the social sciences. We want to investigate, among other things, what defines the identity of people with disabilities today, who and what provides them with the most important support, and what mechanisms of exclusion continue to impede their daily functioning. The emphasis will be on both well-known barriers (architectural, communicative, and cultural) and new challenges arising, for example, from the ongoing digitization of social and professional life.
The analyses we are interested in also address the shift away from the medical model of disability and toward social and biopsychosocial models. We can refer to a variety of theoretical frameworks and standards, including International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and International Classification of Functioning, and Disability and Health- Children and Youth (ICF, ICF-CY, World Health Organization), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR, American Psychiatric Association), and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). We will also look at support practices, such as grassroots self-organization networks and civic activism by people with disabilities, as well as innovative assistive technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions, and care models that are rooted in human rights.
Technology and artificial intelligence are increasingly important aspects of contemporary social life. We encourage critical thinking about how AI and assistive technologies can improve accessibility and autonomy, but we also ask questions like: are they developed with the participation of people with disabilities, do they protect privacy, and do they empower or limit agency? We are interested in analyses that demonstrate both the potential and risks of these solutions, including the use of AI in disability research. We also want to look at current practices in disability research, specifically the use of AI to collect and analyze data. In this context, we value the voices of people with disabilities: we welcome quantitative and qualitative study results, approaches based on autoethnographic narratives, participant observation, and participatory methods that will reveal what it truly means to be (dis)abled in the modern world.
A wide range of contributions engaging with disability from sociological perspectives is welcome, including but not limited to critical disability studies, intersectionality, social policy, cultural sociology, and institutional analysis. Both theoretical and empirical papers are encouraged.
Suggested Areas of Inquiry
- Social construction of disability and normalcy
- Disability and intersectionality (gender, race, class, sexuality)
- Disability and social theory
- Historical and comparative perspectives on disability
- Definitions and classifications of disability
- Institutional responses to disability (education, healthcare, labor markets)
- Accessibility and inclusive design (urban, digital, fashion environments)
- Disability activism and social movements
- Representations of disability in media and culture
- Disability rights and policy analysis
- Experiences of disabled individuals in everyday life
- Material culture and assistive technologies
- Digital accessibility and online participation
- Disability and sport/recreation activities
- Work, employment, and economic participation
- Disability justice and transnational perspectives
- Emerging challenges and opportunities in disability studies
- Disability research and analysis
- Disability and AI
Publication language: English
Please send submissions in English until May 31, 2026, to the following email addresses:
przegladsocjologiczny@gmail.com
Please prepare your submission following the guidelines for authors:
https://journals.ltn.lodz.pl/Przeglad-Socjologiczny/information/authors
Issue under the patronage of the Sociology of Disability Section of the Polish Sociological Association.
