Co-production research in disability studies: opportunities and challenges

From an international perspective, Swedish disability research lags in co-production research, that is, methods where the subjects of the research are active in the research process.The purpose of this conference is two-fold:To increase the knowledge of participatory research methods within disability research.To facilitate the exchange of ideas between researchers and representatives from disability organisations.The conference is open to researchers and the general public with the aim of increasing visibility of disability rights issues generally and specifically to highlight co-production research.

Our hope is that the conference will be a platform to enable cooperation between researchers and the disability movement.

It is our intention that this will strengthen the relation between research and disability rights work as well as raise awareness of the importance of co-production research in the public discourse, political realm and organisational development, and the relevance of including subjects of the research in the research process.The organisers of this conference are from KritFunk, a Swedish network for disability studies.

We belong to a new generation of researchers who are inspired by the international research of Critical Disability Studies.

The aim of the network is to serve as a platform for further development of methods and theoretical perspectives, for example in this conference´s case, co-production research.Through the network’s international contacts, we have invited researchers from Britain, Germany and Island who have used co-production research.

Following each research presentation, panels consisting of Swedish researchers and representatives from disabilities rights originations will discuss the relevance of these methods, in a Swedish context, and how cooperation using similar methods can be formed.The Conference is digital and is organised in cooperation with Lunds University and Stockholm university, and Begripsam.