Inclusion on stand by: Enacting neoconservative policies and disability in argentina

Abstract

This paper analyses how the enacment inclusion policies for students and people with disabilities in argentina has recently become intertwined with neoconservative discourses and statements that restrict access to rights, particularly when basic living conditions are not guaranteed. Through a documentary analysis of resolutions, public policies and journalistic records, the paper examines the current position of disability on the public agenda, demonstrating how its implementation exacerbates exclusion and social and educational inequality rather than reversing it. In this sense, we argue that the implementation of inclusion policies currently takes cruel and hateful forms towards those the state is supposed to protect. These are forms of exercising power whereby the 'other', as an existing entity, becomes an object of intervention through austerity measures, cuts to funding and rights, and inclusion processes that are on hold. This becomes apparent when we consider the life experiences of people with disabilities and their families. In this context, inclusion policies are suspended, limiting opportunities and restricting rights while fuelling hate speech from a neoconservative perspective. At the same time, however, new spaces of resistance and collective struggle are emerging as lines of escape.