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Paralympic and Para sport representation has provided an important cultural site from which to explore the role of popular disability media in shaping everyday disability knowledge(s) through relations of power, ideology and meaning. Yet limited attention has been afforded to the affective dimensions of Para sport media that may help extend our understanding of its performative power on audiences. In critique of the recent Netflix Paralympic documentary film, 'Rising Phoenix', this article affords particular attention to the production of disability affects through the cinematic entanglement of things, bodies and language that work to involve audiences on an affective, emotional and sensorial level. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's (2004) cultural politics of emotion, it is argued that the film produces an economy of disability affects that contribute to the qualitative affective qualities of the film yet operate to (re-)configure sites of disabled normativity, gendered disability relations and nourish 'supercrip' and 'medico-tragedy' disability narratives. Attention is paid to the implications of this and the role of sport documentary film more widely in generating affective modes of representation for marginalised sporting groups.

The Paralympic games is a pedagogic pervasive, political, powerful, and 'popular' cultural site where the heightened visibility of disability bring into being specific forms of disability as they articulate within cultures, institutions and practices. Regarded as a 'positive charge' by Stuart Hall, the Paralympics intends to challenge the devalued disabled body politic of typical disability representation. This has been stimulated by the entry of Channel 4 as the UK Paralympic rights holders in 2012 which has seen greater media coverage of certain technologically enhanced cyborgian parasport bodies and an emerging celebrity / sexualised disability culture. This contemporary moment in disability representation provides a compelling space in which to (re-)address the gendered nature of hyper-visible Parasport hybrids, their potential to disrupt 'normative' relations of power, and, the wider impact on disability politics in a neoliberalised culture of widening and affective circuits of bodily inclusion and control. Drawing on an integrated content and textual analysis of 90 hours of Paralympic programming from the Rio 2016 Games we highlight two emblematic segments so as to enhance our appreciation of contemporary disabled politics as it intersects with gender, technology and nation. We analyse these emblematic segments at the intersection of critical disability studies, cultural studies and sport, using Mitchell and Snyder's (2015) concept of ablenationalism to highlight the extent certain technological capacitated parasport bodies perform gendered representational work as part of the seductive apparatus of neoliberal micro-governance suggestive of an emerging ecology of disability-gender relations. In doing so, we highlight the Paralympic contradictions and interrogate the assumed 'positive charge' of the contemporary (re-)presentation of disability.

This paper is closed access until 2 December 2020. ; The Paralympic games is a pedagogic, pervasive, political, powerful, and 'popular' cultural site where the heightened visibility of disability bring into being specific forms of disability as they articulate within cultures, institutions and practices. Regarded as a 'positive charge' by Stuart Hall, the Paralympics intends to challenge the devalued disabled body politic of typical disability representation. This has been stimulated by the entry of Channel 4 as the UK Paralympic rights holders in 2012 which has seen greater media coverage of certain technologically enhanced cyborgian parasport bodies and an emerging celebrity / sexualized disability culture. This contemporary moment in disability representation provides a compelling space in which to (re-)address the gendered nature of hyper-visible Parasport hybrids, their potential to disrupt 'normative' relations of power, and, the wider impact on disability politics in a neoliberalised culture of widening and affective circuits of bodily inclusion and control. Drawing on an integrated content and textual analysis of 90 h of Paralympic programming from the Rio 2016 Games we highlight two emblematic segments so as to enhance our appreciation of contemporary disabled politics as it intersects with gender, technology and nation. We analyse these emblematic segments at the intersection of critical disability studies, cultural studies and sport, using concept of ablenationalism to highlight the extent certain technological capacitated parasport bodies perform gendered representational work as part of the seductive apparatus of neoliberal micro-governance suggestive of an emerging ecology of disability-gender relations. In doing so, we highlight the Paralympic contradictions and interrogate the assumed 'positive charge' of the contemporary (re-)presentation of disability.

This study explored how female track athletes experience and use their bodies within the contexts (social places) that form part of their everyday routines. Using ethnographic methods (focus groups, observations, self-directed photographic elicitation, and reflexive diary entries) the research focused on a training group of five semi-elite female track athletes based in the UK in which one researcher was a full participant. Arthur Frank's theory of the body is employed as an analytical lens to explore and illuminate the predominant types of body usage manifest in their embodiments. The findings indicated that the athletes were predominantly mirroring bodies, with focus on appearance central to their experiences. Crucially, these women desired more muscle in the mirroring process. Finally, attention is drawn to Frank's typology as a useful framework through which to contribute to some of the key issues related to women's experiences of their bodies in sport.

Paralympic athletes are increasingly using social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to self-represent and engage audiences in disability counter narratives that resist dominant disability stereotypes. This is particularly the case at the intersection of gender and sexuality where social media is being harnessed to visibly reclaim gendered and sexualised disabled identities in new and diverse ways. In this article, we advance scholarship on female Paralympic athletes' self-representational practices through an intersectional visual media analysis of the most popular female British Paralympic athlete Instagram pages. We capture a particular trend in Paralympic athletes' self-representational practices, termed cripvertising, that intersects with gendered heteronormative scripts centred on neoliberal ableism, kinship normativity and consumption ('branding') capabilities. We discuss the contradictions and complexities of Paralympians self-representations and their role in relation to the subversive, pedagogical and emancipatory potential for shaping new disability media narratives, disabled (online) normativity and representational politics.

Despite the social change ambitions of Paralympic governing bodies and National broadcasters, there is still a shortage of evidence of where public social attitudes stand with respect to disabled bodies, and how these respond to the changing nature of Paralympic broadcasting. Based on a large-scale qualitative audience study across England and Wales, we aim to address this empirical gap. Our findings demonstrate how audiences internalise socially progressive ideas towards disability in line with Channel 4's broadcasting strategy. These include a greater appreciation of Paralympic sport as an elite sporting event, the 'normalisation' of the technologically enhanced disabled body and an awareness of emerging cultural citizenship concerning disability rights-based discourses. Yet, at the same time, we evidence new, potentially damaging stigma hierarchies of disability preference framed by 'ablenational' sentiments. Findings are discussed within ongoing debates around mega sporting events, media audiences and disability biopolitics.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games was broadcast for the first time on free to air (FTA) television across 49 territories in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article charts the story of this historic development and marks the first study to explore Paralympic broadcast production beyond the cultural specificities of Global North/Western-centric media practices, infrastructure availability and disability discourses. Drawing on an integrated qualitative dataset, including interviews with key individuals from the International Paralympic Committee, TV Media Sport (the broadcast partner) and one national Sub-Saharan broadcaster (Malawi Broadcasting Corporation), this article documents the challenges, logic and politics behind the Sub-Saharan African Paralympic broadcast. In so doing, we consider the extent to which these articulated with epistemic differences, underlying neocolonial sentiments and (mis-)understandings of the geopolitical contours and disability politics of the Sub-Saharan African region. We consider the important role national Paralympic broadcasters may play in the sustainable development of the broadcasts across this region, particularly in relation to its pedagogical value for harnessing progressive localised disability politics, disability activism, and social justice.

AbstractThis study aimed to explore the challenges faced by women in participating in digital economic activities in Bangladesh and explore solutions to the challenges encountered by women while engaging in digital economic activities in Bangladesh. A qualitative approach was employed with 16 women directly involved in digital economic activities and research interviewed. These interviews provided rich qualitative data and outlined some challenges and possible solutions to promote women's engagement in the digital economy in Bangladesh. Key challenges identified were a lack of technological knowledge and interest, higher costs and inflation, higher interest rates on loans, a complicated loans process, male domination, lower government support, and few digital educational programs. Solutions proposed included: training and development programs, increased seminars and symposiums, more government funding, interest‐free loans, a simple loan process, technological education, as well as the establishment of childcare centers. Henceforth, the current offers theoretical and practical implications.