Alternative for Whom? Conceptually Exploring Meaningful Work for People With Disability in Alternative Forms of Work Organization

This theoretical paper explores the role of an ethics of embodiment perspective in promoting meaningful work for people with disabilities in Alternative Forms of Work Organization (AFWO). Starting with a consideration of the importance of meaningful work within a broader project of disability inclusion, the paper addresses four main challenges that AFWO faces, as expressions of a neo-normative paradigm, in producing meaningful work for people with disabilities while considering issues of embodiment: (1) self-identity; (2) autonomy/flexibility; (3) abstract embodiment; (4) Intermediate space/time. Referring to crip theory, a radical and provocative approach in disability studies that challenges normalization and compulsory able-bodiedness, the paper then proposes four illustrative cases that offer a critical and innovative view on embodiment. From the analysis of these cases, we identify four categories for a crip ethics of embodiment: (1) crip self-identity; (2) mixed ability organizing; (3) meaningful embodiment; and (4) non-normative space/time. We argue that these four categories provide new pathways for AFWO to promote meaningful work for people with disabilities and represent a potential turning point in reflecting on the neo-normative approach in organizations.