Disability as a Boundary Object

Overview & Synopsis

The concept of disability is actively used by social justice movements and welfare state systems, but it is often rejected by people involved with patient organisations, neurodiversity movements, and comparable diversity proponents. This book unites these social actor positions by outlining an overarching disability model. It discusses the potential for the model to serve as a boundary object for people with impairments, activist organisations, professionals, redistributive welfare systems, and scholarly works in Disability Studies. Using a three‑fold model in which disability is understood as a social construction, a valued condition, and an unwanted state that can improve from therapy, it shows the potential of the three frameworks as discursive powers inherent to a broad and unifying model of disability as well as the possible use of such a broad disability model for diverse actors positioned in heterogeneous social arenas. It will be of interest to all scholars, students, and professionals working within the field of Disability Studies, sociology, social policy, health studies, and social work.