Research Objective and Theoretical Framework
This paper investigates the pivotal role of care-infused ethics and practices in redefining organizational structures in post-pandemic times, focusing on reciprocity and caring-with in disability-led and inclusive organizations. Challenging the reduction of organizational inclusion to governance technologies within neoliberal-capitalist market dynamics (Mitchel & Snyder, 2015; Ahmed, 2012), the paper critiques existing power imbalances and precarious forms of recognition (Dobusch, 2021). Utilizing Jasbir Puar's (2017) framework, it deconstructs the ability/disability binary, examining how intersections of capitalism, racialization, and care create complex assemblages of disability into a triangulation of debility and capacity. Additionally, it incorporates Tronto's (2013) perspective on the democracy and care deficit, arguing for the incompatibility of ideal inclusion with neoliberalism and highlighting the interconnection between democratic organizing and care-full inclusion. The paper underscores the value of disability-led organizations in transforming organizational practices.
Methods
The methodology involves a diffractive re-reading (Barad, 2014; Bozalek & Zembylas, 2017) of qualitative case-study material from two disability-led organizations, part of the broader care and advocacy sectors. This analysis stems from the 'Cov_Enable: Reimagining Vulnerability in Times of Crisis' project, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (Stand-Alone Project P 34641). The project employs a qualitative, longitudinal, participatory research design to explore evolving vulnerability perceptions during a global crisis, examining the shifts across macro, meso, and micro levels and their implications for inclusive education and supported living.
Conclusions, Outcome, Results
In re-reading the data and the varying responses to crisis-enactment by two disability-led organizations (Koenig & Barberi, 2023) the findings reveal two intra-related phenomena essential for understanding organizational inclusion. Firstly, it highlights how an ethos of caring practices and reciprocity (Tronto, 2017) not only facilitated a stable and effective organizational navigation through times of uncertainty and turbulence but also reinvigorated the ideological and political motivations of advocacy and service organizations, leading to tangible policy changes. Secondly, it explores a training and counseling organization formed to address structural violence in disability services. The pandemic provided a socio-temporal space free from meritocratic constraints, that facilitated the cultivation of essential skills within the unique temporal rhythms of disabled individuals—often referred to as crip time (Kafer, 2013)—and the fostering of sustained collective care-webs (Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018) that extended to non-disabled colleagues. In conclusion, the paper calls for recognizing these often overlooked acts of affordance creation (Dokumaci, 2023) and suggests that incorporating care ethics can lead to more resilient, adaptable organizational models in uncertain times.