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DISLIFE Liveable disabilities: Life courses and opportunity structures across time

Research project Employing life course perspectives of humans’ experiences of disability in Sweden, past and present, this project challenges present preconceptions about disability and its diverse impacts on people’s opportunities in society.

Recent statistics show that about 65 million people (10%) of the European population are disabled. Employing life course perspectives of humans’ experiences of disability in Sweden, past and present, this project challenges present preconceptions about disability and its diverse impacts on people’s opportunities in society. The findings increase our understanding of how and why liveable disabilities vary across time and between individuals that help to promote more equal and fairer opportunities for disabled people today.

Head of project

Project overview

Project period:

2016-02-01 2021-07-31

Funding

European Research Council (ERC), 2016-2021: SEK 19,000,000

Participating departments and units at Umeå University

Department of Culture and Media Studies, Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies

Research area

Demography, History, Media and communications, Public health and health care science

Project description

People with disabilities are marginalized in society and research, and little is known about how disabilities become liveable. Our research team challenges this multifaceted bias by investigating ‘liveable disabilities’ as a function of disability and opportunity structures from the 19th century until now in Sweden.

Four life course themes are analysed with mixed-method research:

1. Health and well-being
2. Transitions into education and work
3. Into a partner relationship and family life
4. Opportunity structures in leisure activities (through social interaction and disability representations in sports, culture and on the Internet)

Quantitative analyses of Sweden’s long-term population databases reflect how disability impacts on people’s educational, occupational, marital and survival chances. Qualitative analyses uncover how disabled people today experience and talk about the themes (1-4) and how mass media depict them or they themselves communicate their life stories in different media. We make innovative studies of social activities in culture, sports and on Internet, which may promote people’s opportunities in society at large. This enables us to answer three basic questions:

A. When? Have liveable disabilities increased or fluctuated across time?
B. Who? What variations in liveable disabilities are found between different people with different impairments?
C. Why? Which opportunity structures and individual features work to impede or further liveable disabilities?

Our research team possesses an exceptional infrastructure from the cross-disciplinary skills we represent and our affiliation with centres at Umeå University researching populations (CEDAR, DDB), disability (CDR), gender (UCGS) and the humanities, culture and information technology (HUMlab).

More about the project

Learn more about the project in this document (Pdf)

Project results

This project is now finished. Learn about the results of the project in this results summary. 

Results summary Dislife 220315.pdf (306 kB)

Publications

Idrottsforum.org/Nordic sport science forum, Malmö: Malmö University 2022, Vol. 13 : 111-129
Nordlund, Madelene; Wickman, Kim; Karp, Staffan; et al.
Disability & Society, Taylor & Francis Group 2022, Vol. 37, (7) : 1085-1106
Gelfgren, Stefan; Ineland, Jens; Cocq, Coppélie
Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Sage Publications 2022, Vol. 26, (4) : 1057-1074
Karhina, Kateryna; Ineland, Jens; Vikström, Lotta
CEDAR Working Papers, 18
Vikström, Lotta; Junkka, Johan; Namatovu, Fredinah; et al.
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:8
Wisselgren, Maria J.; Vikström, Lotta
Elevhälsa och en hälsofrämjande skolutveckling: i teori och praktik, Malmö: Gleerups Utbildning AB 2021 : 165-178
Wickman, Kim; Berggren, Sandra
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:16
Nordlund, Madelene; Larsson, Daniel; Stattin, Mikael
Historical Life Course Studies, Amsterdam: International Institute of Social History 2021, Vol. 10, (S3) : 151-155
Vikström, Lotta; Edvinsson, Sören; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling
CEDAR Working Papers, 14
Nordlund, Madelene; Wickman, Kim; Vikström, Lotta; et al.
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:13
Söderlund, Hanna; Wälivaara, Josefine; Ljuslinder, Karin
HumaNetten, Växjö: Linnaeus University Press 2021, (47) : 143-168
Söderlund, Hanna; Wälivaara, Josefine; Ljuslinder, Karin
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:19
Junkka, Johan; Vikström, Lotta; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling
CEDAR Working Papers, 17
Vikström, Lotta; Wälivaara, Josefine; Ljuslinder, Karin
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:9
Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta; Sandström, Glenn
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:15
Wickman, Kim; Torége, Linda
Journal of International Special Needs Education, Meridian Allen Press 2021, Vol. 24, (2) : 86-96
Ineland, Jens; Karhina, Kateryna; Vikström, Lotta
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:10
Liselotte, Eriksson; Junkka, Johan; Sandström, Glenn; et al.
Population: Research and Policy Review, Springer 2021, Vol. 40, (2) : 163-185
Sandström, Glenn; Namatovu, Fredinah; Ineland, Jens; et al.
BMC Public Health, BioMed Central 2021, Vol. 21, (1)
Namatovu, Fredinah; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta
CEDAR Working Papers, 2021:12
Vikström, Lotta; Junkka, Johan; Karhina, Kateryna
CEDAR Working Papers, 11
Vikström, Lotta; Karhina, Kateryna; Junkka, Johan
PLOS ONE, PLOS 2020, Vol. 15, (2)
Namatovu, Fredinah; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta; et al.
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Vol 22, No 1
Ljuslinder, Karin; Vikström, Lotta; Ellis, Katie
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Stockholm University Press 2020, Vol. 22, (1) : 35-38
Ljuslinder, Karin; Ellis, Katie; Vikström, Lotta
The History of the Family, No 2, Vol 25
Vikström, Lotta; Shah, Sonali; Janssens, Angelique
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Stockholm: Stockholm University Press 2020, Vol. 22, (1) : 80-87
Wälivaara, Josefine; Ljuslinder, Karin
The History of the Family, Routledge 2020, Vol. 25, (2) : 177-201
Vikström, Lotta; Shah, Sonali; Janssens, Angelique
Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Taylor & Francis 2020, Vol. 7, (1) : 54-63
Ineland, Jens
The History of the Family, Abingdon: Routledge 2020, Vol. 25, (2) : 322-344
Vikström, Lotta; Haage, Helena; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling
Alter;European Journal of Disability Research ;Journal Europeen de Recherche Sur le Handicap, Elsevier 2020, Vol. 14, (2) : 71-84
Cocq, Coppélie; Ljuslinder, Karin
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020, Vol. 15, (4)
Junkka, Johan; Sandström, Glenn; Vikström, Lotta
The History of the Family, Routledge 2020, Vol. 25, (2) : 230-245
Namatovu, Fredinah; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta
Funktionsnedsättning i arbetsliv och välfärd: rapport från forskarseminariet i Umeå 16–17 januari 2019, Försäkringskassan; Analys och prognos 2019 : 15-29
Vikström, Lotta; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Junkka, Johan; et al.
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, Vol. 21, (1) : 238-249
Ineland, Jens; Gelfgren, Stefan; Cocq, Coppélie
Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 51, (4) : 1036-1056
Wälivaara, Josefine
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, Linköping University Electronic Press 2018, Vol. 10, (2) : 226-245
Wälivaara, Josefine
Sequence analysis and related approaches: innovative methods and applications, Cham, Switzerland: Springer 2018 : 69-81
Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta; Haage, Helena
Essays in Economic & Business History, Vol. 35, (1) : 207-238
Haage, Helena; Vikström, Lotta; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling
Disability Studies Quarterly, Vol. 37, (4)
Vikström, Lotta; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Haage, Helena
Historical Life Course Studies, Vol. 4 : 97-119
Vikström, Lotta; Haage, Helena; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling
Nordic Network on Disability Research (NNDR) 14th Research Conference, May 3 – 5, 2017.
Ineland, Jens
Continuity and Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016, Vol. 31, (2) : 241-273
De Veirman, Sofie; Haage, Helena; Vikström, Lotta
Proceedings of the International Conference on Sequence Analysis and Related Methods (LaCOSA II), Lausanne: Université de Lausanne 2016 : 93-102
Haage, Helena; Häggström Lundevaller, Erling; Vikström, Lotta

Funding

Latest update: 2022-03-17