Michael Oliver

The politics of disablement

Introduction - Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning - The Cultural Production of Impairment and Disability - Disability and the Rise of Capitalism - The Ideological Construction of Disability - The Structuring of Disabled Identities - The Social Construction of the Disability Problem - The Politics of Disablement: Existing Possibilities - The Politics of Disablement: New Social Movements - Postscript: The Wind is Blowing - Bibliography - Index

Changing the Social Relations of Research Production

ABSTRACT This paper will argue that research on disability has had little influence on policy and made no contribution to improving the lives of disabled people. In fact, up to now the process of research production has been alienating both for disabled people and for researchers themselves. Neither positivist nor interpretive paradigms are immune from the characterisation of research as alienation, and hence it is suggested that the only way to produce unalienated research is to change the social relations of research production. This change will require the development of an emancipatory research paradigm and both the development of and agenda for such a paradigm are briefly considered.

Disability Politics : Understanding Our Past, Changing Our Future

Foreward by Dr. Colin Barnes, Introduction, Chapter 1. Setting the Scene, Chapter 2. Politics, Policy and Disability, Chapter 3. Disability Organisations and the Political Process, Chapter 4. The Rise of the Disability Movement, Chapter 5. Organising Disabled People, Chapter 6. Disability Conscious, Chapter 7. Making Connections Through Rights and Empowerment, Chapter 8. New Visions or the Existing Order, Chapter 9. The Disability Movement - is it a New Social Movement?, Chapter 10. Interviews with Mike Oliver and Jane Campbell

Fundamental Principles of Disability

The purpose of giving this chapter a similar title to the Fundamental Principles document is because it is deliberately derivative of it. I, and many other disabled people, openly acknowledge our debt to the document in the way it shaped our own understanding of disability. The document has never been widely available and with the demise of the Union in 1991, it will become increasingly difficult to obtain.

Social Policy and Disability: Some Theoretical Issues

ABSTRACT This paper suggests that current ways of thinking about disability are inadequate, both theoretically and as a basis for social policy. The main reason for this is that most writers have remained locked within a ‘personal tragedy theory of disability’ and have failed to examine the concept of disability critically. Even those writers who have attempted to take disability seriously have failed to move beyond a traditional framework and have subsequently produced sterile accounts. The final section of the paper begins to suggest what a social theory of disability might look like.

The social model of disability: thirty years on

This year marks exactly 30 years since I published a book introducing the social model of disability onto an unsuspecting world and yet, despite the impact this model has had, all we now seem to do is talk about it. While all this chatter did not matter too much when the economy was booming, now it no longer booms it is proving disastrous for many disabled people whose benefits and services are being severely cut back or removed altogether. In the article I restate my view of what the social model was and what I see as its potential for improving the lives of disabled people. Finally I focus on the unfortunate criticisms of it and the disastrous implications these have had for disabled people.

The politics of disability

This paper briefly considers the influence of the economy on the material circumstances of disabled people and some of the reasons why a politics of disability has now become possible. It goes on to consider the role of dis ability organisations in relation to the state and in the articulation of the political demands of disabled people. Finally some ways forward in the construction of a truly socialist policy relevant to mecting the needs of dis abled people is considered.

Social Work : disabled people and disabling environments

Foreword, Tom Clarke. Editorial, Mike Oliver. 1. The social context of disability, Vic Finkelstein. 2. The changing context of social work practice, Bob Sapey and Nadja Hewitt. 3. Disability and new technology, Paul Cornes. 4. Social work practice in traditional settings, Patrick Phelan and Simon Cole. 5. Social work in an organisation of disabled people, Etienne dAboville. 6. Housing and independent living, Bernie Fiedler. 7. Social work with disabled children and their families, Philippa Russell. 8. Disabled young people, Michael Hirst, Gillian Parker and Andrew Cozens. 9. Disability in adulthood - the OPCS reports, Paul Abberley. 10. Ageing with a disability, Gerry Zarb.

The Politics of Disability: A New Approach

ABSTRACT This paper will argue that the politics of disability has, so far, been narrowly conceived as part of the processes of party and pressure group activity. These approaches will be examined critically and it will be suggested that they are unlikely to produce substantial political gains in terms of ensuring the full participation of disabled people in society or contribute significantly to improving the quality of their lives. Finally, it will be argued that the politics of disability can only be properly understood as part of the newly emergent social movements of all kinds and it is only within this context that their real significance can be grasped.

The Integration-Segregation Debate: some sociological considerations

Abstract This paper will argue that sociology has neglected special education as a central focus of its concern. An attempt is thus made to suggest what such a sociology might look like drawing upon positivist, functionalist, conflict and neo‐Marxisl paradigms to examine the history and development of special education. Precisely because of this neglect, these paradigms themselves prove to be inadequate and material from the sociologies of deviance and social policy is consequently drawn upon. Thus it is finally argued that special education can be analysed within broader structural considerations of the issue of social control rather than from a humanitarian perspective, which has been the case up to now.