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Social Ecology and Disability Justice: Making A New Society

Social Ecology and Disability Justice: Making A New Society

This article will explore commonalities between social ecology and disability justice in their respective visions for liberation. Focusing on the shared components of anti-capitalist critique, mutual aid or interdependence, and ecological sustainability, I will illustrate how these two movements can align to build a more just, egalitarian, and ecologically sustainable world. I argue that social ecology and disability justice share a variety of values and goals that make them natural partners in struggles for collective liberation.

The framework of disability justice emerged in the early 2000s, led by disability activists of color who saw that the disability rights movement up to that point was mainly led by white, middle-class disabled people. The framework of disability justice came from these activists wanting a movement that was much more intersectional in its scope, addressing race, class, sexuality, and environmental issues. The disability justice framework includes ten main principles that advocate for a more equitable and sustainable society for disabled people: intersectionality, leadership of the most impacted, an anti-capitalistic politic, cross-movement solidarity, recognizing wholeness, sustainability, commitment to cross-disability solidarity, interdependence, collective access, and collective liberation. This disability justice frameworks meshes well with social ecology’s principles of non-hierarchy and domination, mutual aid, and ecological sustainability.

For the aspects of social ecology that I focus on in my paper I mainly highlighted that the effects of capitalism is devastating the ecological balance of the planet, referencing Brian Tokar’s article in the Institute for Anarchist Studies entitled, “Movements for Climate Action: Toward Utopia or Apocalypse?”. I also quoted Murray Bookchin’s article, “What Is Social Ecology” in the book Social Ecology and Communalism, which describe how our ecological and social challenges need to be solved together for a more just and sustainable world. Bookchin argues that instead of being organized by competition as in capitalism, human societies should be based organized on the principle of mutual aid, the human value of supporting and relying on each other as a community. 

Social ecology and disability justice intersect in their shared values in a variety of ways. The social ecological value of mutual aid is very similar to the disability justice principle of interdependence. This eighth principle recognizes that we all need and rely on each other to survive. This is especially so for people with disabilities, as interdependence has been an important tactic that allows many of us to engage in our communities. People with disabilities recognize that true freedom does not come from isolation, by attempting to be completely self-reliant and independent, but rather from free association with people that are mutually invested in each other’s survival. Disability justice also states, “We see the liberation of all living systems and the land as integral to the liberation of our communities, as we all share one planet” (Berne 2016, 18). Entangled in the disability justice value of interdependence is the realization that we all are part of the living ecosystems of the planet and must do our part to protect that balance. This reflects another core disability justice principle that intersects with social ecology: sustainability. Disability justice states that people, especially those with disabilities, need to live in societies where they have the freedom to pace themselves as their lives are conducted, and not feel pressured to perform at a capitalist level of production. Individuals with disabilities need to be able to rest while at work or have the option to stop work altogether to sustain their health. While capitalist production and profit has long been exalted over everything else, there is increasing realization that constant production damages not only our ecosystem, but our bodies as well. 

It is crucial for social ecology to incorporate a disability justice critique into its philosophy, and for disability justice to incorporate the insights of social ecology. First, social ecologists need to realize that with the anticipated climate crisis, vulnerable communities will be affected the most, especially the disability community. If climate devastation causes a social collapse, the disability community will be among the most vulnerable and in need of mutual aid. For social ecologists to be in solidarity with the disability community they must consider disability justice principles in any transition from capitalism. Social ecologists and other parts of the left also need to include the disability community more in their organizational strategies and making changes to ensure this goal is achieved. At a basic level, this requires paying more attention to access needs people may need in your group. This reflects the ninth disability justice principle of collective access. This might mean makings sure spaces are wheelchair accessible, having a scent free area for those allergic to fragrances, or having a sign language interpreter for those who are deaf and hard of hearing. It could also be as simple as waiting for someone with a complex communication need compose something to say on his speech generative device. Meeting people’s access needs assists our groups to be more inclusive to a wider community that includes disabled people. 

Social ecology also needs to account for the pervasive ableist marginalization that disabled people experience in the dominant society. Ableism is experienced by disabled people because they cannot match the expectations and the lifestyle of the able-bodied norm. Although ableism has a long history in human societies, with the rise of capitalism societies found a new reason to marginalize disabled people – viewing them as less economically productive than the rest of the population. As a result, disabled people have been mass-institutionalized and barred from American life in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. American cities passed a series of laws called the “ugly laws” that made it illegal for disabled people to be seen in public.

This history has influenced our culture so that disability issues are almost always made invisible and neglected, even in left politics. Issues with disability are usually construed as individualized medical issues and not recognized for their broader political importance. Until the seventies and eighties people with significant disabilities were often secluded in institutions, absent from the public sphere, and therefore excluded from the possibility of organizing within the left. As a result, social ecologists have a real opportunity to organize alongside activists with disabilities around common goals. There is a segment of the disabled population whose impairments have been caused by the destruction of our lived environment, forging a point of connection between social ecology and disability justice activism. We also share the goal of an egalitarian, ecologically sustainable, and accessible society. 

I also want to highlight another effect of dominant society’s pervasive ableism, namely, that people with disabilities, especially those with significant disabilities, are isolated from their communities because of bodily, cognitive, or psychological differences. This isolation, in addition to its emotional and psychological strain, also makes disabled people vulnerable to abuse from family members, care givers, and the growing fascist movement.  As we know, fascists have historically targeted the most vulnerable as their first victims of violence and persecution. It is up to the social ecology community and other communities on the left to stand in solidarity with the disability community to help ensure they will not be immediate victims in the current rise of fascism in this country.

These are just a few reasons why social ecology and other leftist movements need to incorporate disability justice in their organizational praxis. We must work together to build a society that is sustainable, egalitarian, and based on interdependency. There are many activists with disabilities that are willing and waiting to assist other movements in achieving these goals.