Political Discourses of Dissident Disability Activists in Chile

Abstract

| The present study is part of a microsociological research conducted between 2016 and 2019 in the context of the emergence of new social movements triggered in post-dictatorship Chile. Specifically, it deals with the emergence of the sociopolitical discourses of people labeled as disabled. The intention is to present the construction of the political discourses of dissident disability activists living in Chile. For this purpose, we value these discourses as counter-hegemonic or from the margins; that is, they do not follow the approaches of dominant medical and citizen interpretations. We used a qualitative and feminist methodological approach on the bodily itineraries of eleven activists. This allowed us to further explore the group's life trajectories, social discourses, and political praxis. The political discourses of dissident disability activists living in Chile are part of the claims of non-standard corporealities to access the public and cultural scene. It is imperative to generate counter-hegemonic discourses incor-porating diverse knowledge in order to advocate for the rights of people who relate to difference and to make visible the structural inequalities that affect subaltern collec-tives. The article incorporates a situated, feminist, and Latin American perspective to address a phenomenon of growing interest in the social sciences, and presents reflec-tions that contribute to both academia and activism.