Vulnerability and Agency: Reframing Disability through the Capabilities Approach. A Case Study of Women with Physical Disabilities in Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

This study explores the concepts of vulnerability, agency, and actors with relation to the capability development and deprivation of women with physical disabilities in Lusaka, Zambia. Based in the human development paradigm and Sen and Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach, it seeks to critically explore what impact being born, raised, and living as a woman with a physical disability in a developing country has on the development of capabilities. It also seeks to identify and analyze the involved processes, actors, and environmental factors. A main finding is that capability deprivation for women with physical disabilities is not simply caused by disability, or by gender, but by a multitude of factors. These include: the environment, social contexts, and relative poverty in which the women live; the particular cultural repertoires that surround them; and the actors with whom they interact. However, disability can, and often does, exacerbate the complex life situations in which the women find themselves.