Exploring the Role of the Disabled Body as a Vehicle and Art Form within Anti-Austerity Protest

The impact of neoliberal austerity policy is being felt by people with disabilities across the globe. This chapter attends to disability protest in response to austerity across two contexts—the United Kingdom and Australia. It examines how people with disabilities are choreographing their protest, the strategies they are using, and the outcomes they are seeking. The United Kingdom and Australia share a colonial legacy, strong cultural links, and significant trends to economic rationalism under current conservative governments. However, the analysis highlights that there are distinct differences in how neoliberalist policy is unfolding in each context and the way in which it is impacting on the lives of people with disabilities. Bringing two bodies of research from both locations into dialogue offers a unique opportunity to understand how people with disabilities are using activism to draw attention to the issues they face, and to build community in order to help survive the very real lived impacts of austerity. Furthermore, it allows one to ask why exposing pain, impairment, and vulnerability is perceived to be an effective choreopolitical strategy as part of these performative protest actions