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.

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.

Private Unabhangigkeit und Selbstverantwortung machen die moderne Existenz aus. Doch erst seit Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts ist es auch chronisch kranken und behinderten Menschen moglich, personliche Autonomie fur sich zu reklamieren. Die neoliberale Moderne gibt ihnen die Freiheit; zugleich baut sie neue Barrieren auf. In dieser Studie wird der Stellenwert von Selbstbestimmung in Gesundheitsversorgung, Rehabilitation und Bioethik untersucht.
Im theoretischen Teil werden Historizitat und Ambivalenz des Autonomiekonzepts herausgearbeitet. Die Selbstbestimmung behinderter Menschen wird gekennzeichnet als Befreiung aus der feudalistischen Struktur des Asylmodells, von dem die Versorgungsstrukturen der Behindertenhilfe auch heute noch gepragt sind. Anschliessend werden narrativ strukturierte Einzelfallstudien vorgestellt, in denen korperlich beeintrachtigte Frauen und Manner ihre Alltagstheorien und Erfahrungen bei der Verwirklichung eines selbstbestimmten Lebens schildern.
Im Ergebnis zeigt diese Pionierbarbeit der deutschsprachigen Disability Studies, dass der Autonomiegedanke verschiedene Konstruktionen beinhaltet, bei denen politische, instrumentelle, therapeutische und kreative Dimensionen eine zentrale Rolle spielen."

Which theoretical and methodological approaches of contemporary cultural criticism resonate within the field of disability studies? What can cultural studies gain by incorporating disability more fully into its toolbox for critical analysis? Culture - Theory - Disability features contributions by leading international cultural disability studies scholars which are complemented with a diverse range of responses from across the humanities spectrum. This essential volume encourages the problematization of disability in connection with critical theories of literary and cultural representation, aesthetics, politics, science and technology, sociology, and philosophy. It includes essays by Lennard J. Davis, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Dan Goodley, Robert McRuer and Margrit Shildrick.