Individuation processes in disabled people. An approach through mobilities in rural areas of southern Chile

Mobilities are a social practice, which is managed around gaining access to services and activities that are important for daily life. At the same time, it is interpreted as a structural test where networks and resources are necessary to achieve them. With a qualitative approach, this research shows how disabled people in the South of Chile plan and achieve their mobilities using the resources available from their family and institutional networks. The results suggest that people together with their family, 'kith,' 'other informal', public and private institutions achieve 'making possible' their mobilities. Thus, they can access various services: healthcare, withdraw pensions, go shopping and deal with bureaucracy. Finally, we conclude that mobilities 'produce the individual,' in the sense that, depending on the source of the social supports that allow their mobilities, they may be considered 'agentic' or 'institutionalised' individuals.