Disability, Power, and the Politics of Societal Inclusion

Dear Colleagues,

Across many societies, disability inclusion has become increasingly prominent in public discourse, institutional frameworks and rights-based commitments. Yet, meaningful participation of people with disabilities in social, cultural, economic and political life remains uneven. Inclusion is often framed in terms of access to services or adjustments, while participatory mechanisms may function more as procedural gestures than mechanics that enable meaningful influence. As a result, inclusion risks becoming symbolic or reduced to a “tick-box” exercise rather than transforming underlying power relations.

This Special Issue approaches societal inclusion as a fundamentally political process. Participation in culture, urban space, civic life and collective decision-making is shaped by institutional arrangements and governance structures. Inclusion cannot be meaningfully assessed without examining how decisions are made, who participates in making them and under what conditions.

Grounded in the social and human rights models of disability, the Special Issue moves beyond the institutional, political and social barriers to participation and it centres people with disabilities as active political and social actors – not merely as policy subjects, but as agenda-setters, decision-makers and knowledge producers who shape the terms of inclusion itself. The Special Issue, therefore, foregrounds analyses that examine inclusion and decision-making processes from the standpoint of people with disabilities and their collective political agency.

The Special Issue invites contributions that critically engage with questions such as:

• Who holds agenda-setting and decision-making authority in processes that shape disability inclusion?
• How do governance structures and institutional practices produce or constrain the political agency of people with disabilities?
• Under what conditions does participation move beyond consultation toward substantive influence?
• When and how do inclusion mechanisms become tokenistic, symbolic, or co-opted?
• How are the meanings of accessibility, participation and inclusion defined, negotiated and contested – and by whom?

Theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that examine disability inclusion across domains such as politics, culture, urban planning, public space and civic life, with particular attention to governance and decision-making processes, are welcome. Submissions addressing all types of disabilities – including physical, sensory, intellectual and neurodivergent disabilities – are encouraged, as are contributions engaging intersectional dimensions of disability.

The Special Issue adopts a global perspective and does not assume Global North governance models as the default. Contributions from diverse geographical contexts, as well as comparative and transnational analyses, are particularly welcome.

By foregrounding decision-making processes and power relations, this Special Issue bridges disability studies with scholarship on governance and participation. It moves beyond technical discussions of accessibility to interrogate who decides, how inclusion is structured and with what consequences for societal participation.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Dr. Josefine Nyby
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.