Transport infrastructures and social inclusion… or, how wheelchair users rebel

• Autor(a) principal: Velho, Raquel
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Tecnologia e Sociedade (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.utfpr.edu.br/rts/article/view/7857
• topic: Sociologia – Outras Sociologias Específicas; Acessibilidade; Deficiência; Infraestrutura; Segregação Social; Transporte.

Transport infrastructures are important social nexus: they provide a means to travel between the private sphere (the home) and the social sphere (work, leisure, politics). In this paper, infrastructures are discussed through the lens of disabled people’s experiences of access to the public transport system in London, UK. Through qualitative research, it is argued, firstly, that public transport in London materializes centuries of social exclusion, resulting in a vicious cycle of social segregation of disabled people. It is then shown how wheelchair using passengers have developed mechanisms of inclusion through political activism but also through subversive and individual actions in their daily travels. The article concludes with some theoretical remarks on the nature of infrastructure, questioning its common definition as “invisible” and the importance of “labor”, and proposing some lessons for the Brazilian context.