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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)

@marxdisability.bsky.social
499 followers 35 following 175 posts

Study and engagement network with a particular focus on Disability Politics & Marxism(s). We hold monthly talks. To join the mailing list, check out our contact page: marxismdisability.wordpress.com/Con…

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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
6th October, 6:30pm BST First presentation: 'Saul Leslie’s novel "A Working Title I Want To Change" explores the dizzying over-lit world of austerity Britain, revealing consumerism’s rituals and illusions in all their comedy and menace' marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/09/07/d...
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
October 2026 – Disablement, Art, and Alienation: Marxist Adventures in Literature and Science (panel event)
We invite MDN members to a panel event with: Saul Leslie – Publication of A Working Title I Want to Change Stefan Sunandan Honisch – Vulnerability: Disablement and the Political Economy of Mus…
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Joe Gallagher @joedgallagher.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
here myself and @dashflint.bsky.social try to highlight the very real enactment of social m*rder + e*genics happening right now with 3 concrete e.g. in the UK: welfare cuts, c*vid, and (just in time for the very next attempt being voted on next Fri) the assisted su*cide / e*thanasia bill
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
The Class Work Project @classworkproject.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
⚡️ LUMPEN 19 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ⚡️ Disabled and chronically ill people often live in poverty. We want to hear about your crip rage, your crip joy, your crip indifference.. It doesn’t have to be an inspirational story, or a sad one. theclassworkproject.com/lumpen-19-ca...
LUMPEN 19 DISABILITY & CHRONIC ILLNESS
disability rights flag as background
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
Ioana Cerasella Chis @cerasellachis.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
'Disabling Capitalism: A Critical Inquiry Into Work, Productivism and Disablement' is due to be published in Feb 2027 - available in Open Access and paperback formats It can be preordered from here: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/disabling-ca... (a 50% discount can be accessed until the end of July)
Book cover with floral patterns from a William Morris part-finished sketch. It features large, curvaceous stylized flowers and twisting acanthus leaves - set against a background of smaller, entwined vines and leaves.

The title "Disabling Capitalism: A Critical Inquiry Into Work, Productivism, and Disablement" by Ioana Cerasella Chis is displayed on a yellow rectangle.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Interested in joining the Marxism and Disability Network mailing list and our monthly events? Visit this page: marxismdisability.wordpress.com/contact/
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
Contact & mailing list
To subscribe to our mailing list, please visit this JISC page. Click on the ‘subscribe’ button and add your name and email address. If you wish to send the Steering Group an email, plea…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Brief note: this is a pamphlet that critiques the (very) concept of 'ableism'
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
6th Oct MDN event Disablement, Art, and Alienation - a panel event with: * Saul Leslie – Publication of A Working Title I Want to Change * Stefan Sunandan Honisch – Vulnerability: Disablement & the Political Economy of Music Performance marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/09/07/d... #Disability
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
October 2026 – Disablement, Art, and Alienation: Marxist Adventures in Literature and Science (panel event)
We invite MDN members to a panel event with: Saul Leslie – Publication of A Working Title I Want to Change Abstract: In the labyrinth of Tesco’s flagship supermarket, precariously employed workers …
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Our first publication concerns how Marxists should approach the concept of ‘ableism’ as a description and explanation of disability oppression; a question which has caused lively debate in the Network since last Spring.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Towards an Historical Materialist Critique of Ableism - first Marxism & Disability Network pamphlet (check website) marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/r... #Pamphlet #Marxism #Disability #Ableism
Title of pamphlet on a black background and yellow writing
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Missed our September MDN event with Clara Thurner? The video recording is now available on our YouTube playlist: Biocertification in the Capitalist State www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xUM...
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Biocertification in the Capitalist State (with Clara Thurner)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Missed our June book launch event? The video recording is now available on our YouTube playlist Communist Ontologies (with Bruno Gullì and Richard Gilman-Opalsky) www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVX8... #Disability #Marxism
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Communist Ontologies (with Bruno Gullì and Richard Gilman-Opalsky)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
Historical Materialism Journal @histmat.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Now online: 'Biocertification in the Capitalist State (with Clara Thurner)', organised and hosted by @marxdisability.bsky.social.
youtube.com
Biocertification in the Capitalist State (with Clara Thurner)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Tomorrow from 6.30pm BST! The link to join the event has been shared with MDN mailing list subscribers.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This event will be taking place on Tuesday next week!
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Looking forward to our autumn series of monthly seminar events! Join us on Tuesday, 1st September, 6:30pm BST for an event with Clara Thurner, who will be presenting on 'Biocertification in the Capitalist State' The abstract is available here: marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/08/06/s...
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
September 2026 – Clara Thurner: Biocertification in the Capitalist State
Abstract: This paper aims to understand anti-disability laws from a historical materialist standpoint as crisis management of capitalist states. While disability theorists have mostly interpreted s…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Looking forward to attending the Historical Materialism conference & hosting the Marxism & Disability Stream in November! 5-8 Nov, SOAS, London www.historicalmaterialism.org/event/twenty...
historicalmaterialism.org
Twenty-third Annual Conference - Historical Materialism
Call for Paper is Online and submission form open! Planetary Warscapes Ablaze: Imperial Mutations in Infernal Times 5-8 November 2026, SOAS, Russell Square, Central London *DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS ...
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Friday next week! Join the book launch jointly organised with CAPPE (University of Brighton)
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Friday, 19th June, 3pm BST Book launch: Communist Ontologies by Bruno Gullì and Richard Gilman-Opalsky This event is co-organised/co-hosted by MDN and the University of Brighton’s Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE) marxismdisability.wordpress.com/events-list/
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
Online monthly events of The Marxism & Disability Network
To receive the links for the events below, please subscribe to the MDN mailing list. Coming up in 2026: On the first Tuesday of the month (usually) at 6.30pm BST/GMT Friday, 19th June, 3pm BST: Boo…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Missed our June MDN event with Pallavi Sanil? The video recording is now available on our YouTube playlist: youtu.be/RfQg60qHc90?...
youtu.be
Capital, Ability, and Education: A Marxist Critique of Inclusion for Divyangjan (with Pallavi Sanil)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Don't forget - this event will be taking place on Tuesday, 2nd of June from 6:30pm BST! Join us.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Deadline for proposals extended! Marxism & Disability Stream at the Annual Historical Materialism Conference (new deadline, Tursday 26 May) marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/05/16/d...
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
Deadline for proposals extended! Marxism & Disability Stream at the Annual Historical Materialism Conference (new deadline, Tue 26 May)
Deadline for proposals extended! Deadline: Tue 26 May 2026 The Marxism & Disability Network (MDN) looks forward to hosting the first designated stream related to Marxism & Disability at the…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Call for Abstracts [15 May deadline] – Marxism & Disability Stream at the Annual Historical Materialism Conferenc marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/c...
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
Call for Abstracts [15 May deadline] – Marxism & Disability Stream at the Annual Historical Materialism Conference
The Marxism & Disability Network (MDN) looks forward to hosting the first designated stream related to Marxism & Disability at the 2026 Historical Materialism London conference (5-8 Novembe…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Our next (June) MDN event will take place on Tue, 2nd June from 6:30pm BST. Join us! Capital, Ability, and Education: A Marxist Critique of Inclusion for Divyangjan in India - Pallavi Sanil marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/05/06/j... #Marxism #Disability
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
June 2026 – Pallavi Sanil: Capital, Ability, and Education: A Marxist Critique of Inclusion for Divyangjan in India
Abstract: This paper critically examines inclusive education for Divyangjan (children with disabilities) in India through the lens of Marxist ideology, offering a materialist reinterpretation of ed…
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
This collective discussion will be taking place today from 6:30pm BST!
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
For the 5th May MDN session (from 6:30pm BST), the Steering Committee are inviting MDN members to a collective discussion about: * The Disability Stream at the HM Conference * MDN–Notes from Below Issue on Disability & Work * MDN–SLSA Special Issue * Pamphlets * Other activities #Marxism #Disability
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Ellie Munro @elmunro.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I love this in its own right, but also because it reminds me of when I started a non-serious campaign against time as an undergrad because I had an essay due too soon, and then spent the years after journeying through a crip[/]time awakening.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Missed the April MDN event with Sofia Righetti Nottegar? Here's the video recording of the event: youtu.be/SgmO8jR55VQ?... Crip Time and Pedagogy of Resistance under Capitalism #Marxism #CripTime #Disability #Disablement #DisabilityStudies
youtu.be
Crip Time and Pedagogy of Resistance under Capitalism (with Sofia Righetti Nottegar)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Call for Abstracts - submit by 15 May Marxism & Disability Stream at the Historical Materialism conference 2026 MDN looks forward to hosting the first designated stream related to Marxism & Disability at the HM London conference (5-8 Nov) Details here: www.historicalmaterialism.org/event/twenty...
historicalmaterialism.org
Twenty-third Annual Conference - Historical Materialism
Call for Paper is Online and submission form open! Planetary Warscapes Ablaze: Imperial Mutations in Infernal Times 5-8 November 2026, SOAS, Russell Square, Central London Deadline for abstracts: Fr...
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Thank you to everyone who attended our event today! The May MDN event will take place on the 5th of May from 6:30pm BST Sibin Eldhose: Excluded from Power: Disability and the Political Economy of Civic Worth
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
This event is due to start in less than 2 hours! Join us.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Tuesday next week from 6:30pm (UK time)! #Marxism #Disability #DisabilityStudies #CripTime
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Our April MDN event Tuesday, 14th April, 6:30pm BST: Sofia Righetti Nottegar: Crip Time and Pedagogy of Resistance under Capitalism The abstract is available here: marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/a... #Marxism #Disabilty
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
April 2026 – Sofia Righetti Nottegar: Crip Time and Pedagogy of Resistance under Capitalism
Abstract: The contribution analyses crip time as a critical category and as a political practice capable of interrogating the temporal regimes of contemporary capitalism. From a Marxist perspective…
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
After a Workers' Inquiry workshop co-hosted with Notes from Below (in Jan) & a co-organised book review symposium event (in Mar), we're excited to announce 9 more events for 2026! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/events-list/ Joining links will be shared on the MDN mailing list ahead of each event
Poster with the list of all the events, written in white and yellow on a black background.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Missed our event yesterday? Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni – The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’: A technoableist analysis of labour in digitalized warehousing The video recording is now available on our Youtube Playlist/the HM Channel www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Yd...
youtube.com
The Machinistic Production of the ‘Defective Worker’ (with Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni)
YouTube video by Historical Materialism: Critical Marxist Theory
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Starting in 40 minutes! Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni: The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’: A technoableist analysis of labour in digitalized warehousing
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Reminder - the March MDN event with Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni will take place on Tuesday next week from 6:30pm GMT! #Disability #Marxism
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
After a Workers' Inquiry workshop co-hosted with Notes from Below (in Jan) & a co-organised book review symposium event (in Mar), we're excited to announce 9 more events for 2026! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/events-list/ Joining links will be shared on the MDN mailing list ahead of each event
Poster with the list of all the events, written in white and yellow on a black background.
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
24th March 2026, 6:30pm UK time – Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni: The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’: A technoableist analysis of labour in digitalized warehousing marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/m...
Abstract:

This paper investigates how the digitalisation of work reconfigures the understanding of workers, their labour, and their value. Drawing on technoableism theory, which foregrounds how technologies establish new normative, disabling standards of capability, we analyse the shifting ontology of the worker in digitally intensive workplaces. We base our study on extensive qualitative data collected with managers, workers, trade union representatives, technology providers, labour market intermediaries, and local authorities across 12 warehouses in three European logistic hubs. Our analysis shows how warehouse workers are problematized as fallible, defective productive resources through systematic comparison with digital technologies, and how these latter are conversely constructed as necessary to enhance, fix and “save” them. In this way, a negative ontology of the human as disabled,  generic labour power, holding at best residual “soft” skills, is established, within which any claim to the value generated is pre-emptively undermined. Our study shows that technoableism offers a powerful theoretical lens to interrogate and demystify the worker empowerment trope at the core of Industry 5.0.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
24th March 2026, 6:30pm UK time – Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni: The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’: A technoableist analysis of labour in digitalized warehousing marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/m...
Abstract:

This paper investigates how the digitalisation of work reconfigures the understanding of workers, their labour, and their value. Drawing on technoableism theory, which foregrounds how technologies establish new normative, disabling standards of capability, we analyse the shifting ontology of the worker in digitally intensive workplaces. We base our study on extensive qualitative data collected with managers, workers, trade union representatives, technology providers, labour market intermediaries, and local authorities across 12 warehouses in three European logistic hubs. Our analysis shows how warehouse workers are problematized as fallible, defective productive resources through systematic comparison with digital technologies, and how these latter are conversely constructed as necessary to enhance, fix and “save” them. In this way, a negative ontology of the human as disabled,  generic labour power, holding at best residual “soft” skills, is established, within which any claim to the value generated is pre-emptively undermined. Our study shows that technoableism offers a powerful theoretical lens to interrogate and demystify the worker empowerment trope at the core of Industry 5.0.
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
The video recording of 'Hope and refusal in an era of criminalized care: Responses to Pirate Care' is now available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyF... #Anticapitalism #PirateCare #Resistance #CollectiveAction @plutopress.bsky.social
youtube.com
Hope and refusal in an era of criminalized care: Responses to Pirate Care
YouTube video by Max Haiven
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Thanks to everyone who joined us today! Once the recording becomes available, we'll share it here Our next event will take place on 24 March from 6:30pm GMT with Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni – The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’ marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2026/02/16/m...
marxismdisability.wordpress.com
March 2026 – Annelies Scheers & Patrizia Zanoni: The machinistic production of the ‘defective worker’: A technoableist analysis of labour in digitalized warehousing
Abstract: This paper investigates how the digitalisation of work reconfigures the understanding of workers, their labour, and their value. Drawing on technoableism theory, which foregrounds how tec…
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Reposted by Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
Historical Materialism Journal @histmat.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
HM Newsletter Number 5 has just gone out. If you want to be a subscriber, sign up here: www.historicalmaterialism.org/newsletter/. N.B. We will be gradually decommissioning the old email list.
historicalmaterialism.org
Subscribe to the HM Newsletter - Historical Materialism
For over 28 years Historical Materialism has been disseminating critical Marxist thinking through the Journal, the Book Series, the historicalmaterialism.org website, the international network of Hist...
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
3 days left (including today) to submit an abstract for the Notes from Below issue on Disability & Work!
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Many thanks to everyone who submitted abstracts for our 2026 series of monthly online events! We will get back in touch with everyone in early March & looking forward to what's to come!
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Our CfA for 2026 MDN events is open until 20 Feb! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/m... From our archives - Georgia van Toorn and Karen Soldatić: Disability, Racism, and the Spectre of Eugenics in Digital Welfare marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2023/10/18/n... #Disability #Marxism
Printscreen of the video recording's cover page with the title of the presentation on a yellow background, alongside HM's logo
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Our CfA for 2026 MDN events is open until 20 Feb! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/m... From our archives - Sabine Fernandes & Rachel da Silveira Gorman - Care as white property: A Marxist intervention into disability care work marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2023/09/20/o... #Disability
Printscreen of the video recording's cover page with the title of the presentation on a yellow background, alongside HM's logo
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Join us on March 3, 7pm GMT for an online discussion of Pirate Care by Valeria Graziano, Marcell Mars, Tomislav Medak This event is supported by various collectives & will launch a book review forum published in the Postdigital Science & Education Journal link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Poster for the event featuring a tarot card with pieate carers, the invitation to join the event and the logos of the collectivee supporting the event - bsa, mdn, cas, rival, alternatives to capitalism research network, and the vagabonds book series of pluto books
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Our Call for Abstracts for 2026 MDN events is open until 20 Feb! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/m... From our archives - Scott Ritchie: Holding mad kids in community: Resisting Capitalism’s Disabling Processes in a Primary Grades Classroom marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2023/09/16/s...
Printscreen of the video recording's cover page with the title of the presentation on a yellow background, alongside HM's logo
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Our current Call for Abstracts for 2026 MDN events is open until 20 Feb! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/m... From our archive - Ioana Cerasella Chis: Disablement Subjectivation and the Reproduction of Capitalist Social Relations marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2023/08/30/h... #Marxism
Printscreen of the video recording's cover page with the title of the presentation on a yellow background, alongside HM's logo
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Marxism and Disability Network (MDN) @marxdisability.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Our current Call for Abstracts for 2026 MDN events is open until 20 Feb! marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/11/17/m... From our archive: Aaron Jaffe: Social Reproduction Theory, ‘Disability’, and the Reification of Labor Power marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2023/07/04/j... #Marxism #Disability
Printscreen of the video recording's cover page with the title of the presentation on a yellow background, alongside HM's logo
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