Reconciling the 'private' and 'public' : disabled young people's experiences of everyday embodied citizenship

The body is the fleshy substance of citizenship. However, analyses of the body and of citizenship have remained largely disconnected, with limited intersection between the two. Traditionally, citizenship has been associated with the ‘public’ sphere and the body with the ‘private’ sphere resulting in the distancing of the body from citizenship in popular and scholarly discourses. This demarcation has resulted in the exclusion of particular groups of people from being able to achieve full citizenship based on corporeal difference. This thesis argues that the separation of the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres perpetuates the marginalisation of disabled people. Through developing the concept of embodied citizenship, this thesis offers a useful lens through which to view the experiences of disabled young people’s everyday lives and to bring into focus the comingling of the ‘private’ and public’ spheres. Using data gathered from interviews with 18 disabled young people, with physical impairments, in Scotland, it explores the ways in which disabled young people negotiate their everyday lives. Thematic analysis of the data identified that participants’ inclusion and participation in the ‘public’ sphere were explicitly bound to their experiences of the ‘private’ sphere. Participants’ greatest feelings of exclusion were felt around everyday experiences often associated with the ‘private’ sphere such as intimate relationships, sexuality and toileting. Exclusion from these purportedly ‘private’ areas of social life resulted in negative impacts for participants’ sense of self and psycho-emotional wellbeing, impacting on their engagement with the ‘public’ sphere, and thus their sense of full citizenship.