The book is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of current Nordic research in this area. The content is mostly empirical rather than theoretical and includes studies focusing on the lives of disabled w omen and men and others affected of disability. Features 15 contributors from the nordic countries.

This collection provides a comprehensive insight into disabled children and youth in Nordic countries. It seeks to understand the experiences of children from their own perspectives and takes a multidisciplinary approach grounded in the new social studies of childhood and the Nordic relational approach to disability.

Over the last three decades, a number of reforms have taken place in European social policy with an impact on the opportunities for persons with disabilities to be full and active members of society. The policy reforms have aimed to change the balance between citizens’ rights and duties and the opportunities to enjoy choice and autonomy, live in the community and participate in political decision-making processes of importance for one’s life. How do the reforms influence the opportunities to exercise Active Citizenship? This volume presents the findings from the first cross-national comparison of how persons with disabilities reflexively make their way through the world, pursuing their own interests and values. The volume considers how their experiences, views and aspirations regarding participation vary across Europe. Based on retrospective life-course interviews, the volume examines the scope for agency on the part of persons with disabilities, i.e. the extent to which men and women with disabilities are able to make choices and pursue lives they have reasons to value. Drawing on structuration theory and the capability approach, the volume investigates the opportunities for exercising Active Citizenship among men and women in nine European countries. The volume identifies the policy implications of a process-oriented and multi-dimensional approach to Active Citizenship in European disability policy. It will appeal to policymakers and policy officials, as well as to researchers and students of disability studies, comparative social policy, international disability law and qualitative research methods.

This book highlights the embodied knowledge of persons with disabilities as a vital resource for understanding equality without taking disability and development for granted. The perspective of embodied inequality offers alternative ways to comprehend our “normality” as until now the notion of normality has too frequently excluded persons with disabilities and their perspectives. Disability inclusion has never been as important as it is today in the development discourse, yet systematic discrimination against people due to their disabilities persists. To address this, the link between theories and practices is strengthened in this book. Through using different contexts in the different book chapters, the readers are informed of how profoundly inequalities are embedded in our society and pronounced as embodied experiences of persons with disabilities. The chapters are written not only by academics but also by disability activists and NGO representatives. The chapters focus on disabilities and development as embodied inequalities manifested at different levels, including theory, law, and policy and practice. In conclusion, the book presents 6 A’s as lessons learned from decolonial understanding and conceptions of embodied inequalities in different contexts of disability and development: Availability, Affordability, Accessibility, Accountability, Assistance, and Affection.

This introduction to disability studies represents a clear, engaging and consistently thought-provoking study of the field. The book discusses the global nature of disability studies and disability politics, introduces key debates in the field and represents the intersections of disability studies with feminist, class, queer and postcolonial analyses. The book has a clear and coherent format which matches the interdisciplinary framework of disability studies - including chapters on sociology, critical psychology, discourse analysis, psychoanalysis and education. Sitting alongside discussions on the global and glocal significance of disability studies these chapters include: Society: Sociological disability studies Individuals: De-psychologising disability studies Psychology: Critical psychological disability studies Culture: Psychoanalytic disability studies Education: Inclusive disability studies Each chapter engages with important areas of analysis such as the individual, society, community and education to explore the realities of oppression experienced by disabled people and to develop the possibilities for addressing it. Broad, dynamic and interdisciplinary in scope this book will be crucial reading for students, researchers and practitioners alike.

Disability Studies is an area of study which examines social, political, cultural, and economic factors that define 'disability' and establish personal and collective responses to difference. This insightful new text will introduce readers to the discipline of Disability Studies and enable them to engage in the lively debates within the field. By offering an accessible yet rigorous approach to Disability Studies, the authors provide a critical analysis of key current issues and consider ways in which the subject can be studied through national and international perspectives, policies, culture and history. Key debates include: The relationship between activism and the academy Ways to study cultural and media representations of disability The importance of disability history and how societies can change National and international perspectives on children, childhood and education Political perspectives on disability and identity The place of the body in disability theory This text offers real-world examples of topics that are important to debates and offers a much needed truly international scope on the questions at hand. It is an essential read for any individual studying, practising or with an interest in Disability Studies.