Introduction

Abstract

Conventional studies of disabilities evaluated creative practices in which social movements, led by people with disabilities, built a new "culture" that generated a new logic of coexistence. However, problems have arisen over the lack of attention to the lives of people with disabilities who cannot act independently, the reinforcement of the dichotomic framework of able-bodied people and people with disabilities, and the international standardization of the definition of a disability and methods to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities that can spread to all countries of the world and lead in the direction of unified modernization.

This special theme focuses on the intersectionality and the noninstitutional phase of small groups and the microsocial relationships in reference to ethnographic research methodologies for disabilities in Japan, Asia, and Africa. It explores how the culture of coexistence—the situational and inconsistent manners, techniques, and ideas—emerges from the practice of cultivation.