Disability Welfare Policy in Europe:Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on persons with cognitive disabilities and their families. Written from a Disability Studies perspective, this edited collection investigates education, employment, social and health care services in European case studies. Recognising how Covid-19 health surveillance has limited the rights of all persons, the chapters demonstrate how its impact has been even more severe on persons with cognitive disabilities and their families. Outlining the changes in welfare services during the Covid-19 pandemic that have led to new forms of segregation and hindered full participation of persons with disabilities in society on an equal basis with others, the collection chronicles a setback in the process of implementing the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Within the framework of public sociology, Disability Welfare Policy in Europe:Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic shows the failure of the attempts aimed at shifting disability policy into the mainstream. The authors highlight how persons with disabilities, their families, as well as personnel working in disability welfare policy have fought to keep the perspectives and rights of persons with disabilities on the policy agenda. If the Covid-19 health surveillance has rendered persons with disabilities invisible, how can they be made visible once again?

Health and illness in the Neoliberal Era in Europe discusses the impact of neoliberalism on public health and the social construction of health and illness in Europe, analysing case studies at a European and national level. The book focusses on three main topics: health inequity, self-responsibilisation and organisational reforms. Increasing inequity is one of the main outcomes of neoliberal policy in Europe and here the authors examine the impact of neoliberal policies on health inequality, providing a European comparative data analysis of healthy life expectancy and mental health issues in Spain. The book looks at self-responsibilisation, as part of neoliberal citizenship, through topics such as crowdsourcing medicine and citizen science. Finally, it analyses organizational reform in Europe using three case studies: Italian national health care reforms, mental health policy in Italy and maternal care in Russia. The book includes contributions from the Czech Republic, Italy, Russia and Spain and fosters the development of sociological debate in such countries within a European framework. It presents quantitative data analysis as well as ethnographic research and outlines a complex scenario affecting the everyday life of European citizens, their health and illness.