Kitchin, Rob and Law, Robin (2001) The Socio-spatial Construction of (In)accessible Public Toilets. Urban Studies, 38 (2). pp. 287-298. ISSN 0042-0980
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Abstract
This paper examines the rights of disabled people to access public spaces in Western
societies through an analysis of the provision of accessible public toilets in Ireland. Providing a
critical analysis around the themes of social justice and citizenship, the investigation is based on
an examination of present-day planning legislation, interviews conducted with 35 disabled
people—19 in the Republic of Ireland and 16 in Northern Ireland—and a case study of one
particular town, Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. These data reveal that in Ireland and the
UK, planning legislation is weak and often not enforced. Accessible public toilets are few and far
between; those that do exist are often poorly designed; and, this lack of provision severely
delimits the daily spatial behaviour of disabled people. This lack of provision, it is argued, is
expressive of a wider set of ableist power geometries and signi es that disabled people do not, as
yet, have the same civil rights as non-disabled people.
1. Introduction
Geographers and others have recently started
to document how space is socially produced
in ways that deny disabled people the same
levels of access as non-disabled people.
Adopting a largely critical position, they
have sought to expose both the ways in
which disabled people are excluded from full
participation in society through the social
production of space; and, the spatial manifestations
of unequal social relations (see
Kitchin, 1998). It is clear that, despite varying
approaches to the study of this subject,
researchers agree
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | The final and definitive version of this article is available at Urban Studies (2001) Vol.38 No.2, pp.287-298, doi:10.1080/00420980124395 |
Keywords: | spatial behaviour; construction; accessible public toilets; disabled access; Ireland; social justice; citizenship; planning legislation; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA |
Item ID: | 3906 |
Depositing User: | Prof. Rob Kitchin |
Date Deposited: | 26 Sep 2012 15:50 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Urban Studies |
Publisher: | SAGE |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/3906 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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