ABSTRACT
This chapter articulates the social vision emerging from anomalous embodiment. It discusses how disability intersects with other identities to exacerbate inequalities. The author proceeds to rethink identity politics in order to examine how anomalous embodiment might inform strategies of resistance. Identity politics, influenced by multiculturalist discourses in the West, have been influenced variably by claims of recognition, injury, or rights. In its stead, the author articulates a shift from the politics of recognition to a politics of redistribution; from injury to co-existence; from rights to ethics; from autonomy to inter-dependence; from ability to vulnerability; and from community to spatiality. The value of an embodied orientation is that it treats diversity or anomaly as the starting point and motivates suitable ethics for developing inclusive identities and just communities. He calls this a relational politics because it concerns how we engage with others, and cultivate respect for human and non-human beings, to reshape our material and social environments into more inclusive spaces.
