The purpose of this thesis was to explore socially constructed discursive barriers to physical activity for people with physical disabilities. This research was informed by a critical disability studies framework. Eight interviews were conducted, split between end-users and stakeholders. The end-user article discusses their perspectives with regard to their own PA participation, their use of PA resources, and their views of how disability is constructed. The stakeholder article deals with their views with regard to Canada’s progress in creating inclusive PA guidelines, the research process as it effects people with physical disabilities, and how disability is constructed. The results showed awareness among both groups of the social model of disability, but that the medical model is still firmly rooted. Work is needed to create inclusive promotional materials and disseminate them effectively. An effective advocacy and lobbying effort was suggested as one avenue towards a possible solution to this issue.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005, and the domestic law surrounding it, is currently in a state of instability, having undergone rigorous scrutiny by the House of Lords Select Committee. At an international level, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 has cast substantial doubt over the very basis of this legal framework. The recommendations made by the Select Committee, and any resulting action by the government to address these, will be hoped to have an impact on the implementation of the legislation on those falling within its remit. On a deeper level, however, this thesis seeks to critically engage with the theoretical underpinnings which inform and guide this legislative framework. This entails a questioning of the ways in which those with disabilities and their carers are responded to under the statute. Exploring the theoretical debates in this context leads to a conclusion that the Act promulgates an individualistic approach to the concept of mental capacity, and does not adequately reflect the reality and lived experiences of those deemed to lack capacity or their informal carers. The papers in this thesis interrogate these issues through a focus on three distinct areas- carers interests under the best interests test; the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards though a social model lens; and capacity to consent to sex. In doing so, this thesis suggests that more relationally and contextually focused approaches can inform a legal framework which is attentive and responsive to the interwoven interests of those with cognitive impairments and their carers, and which facilitates the enjoyment of rights through a focus on the societal, structural and institutional barriers which have historically worked to exclude these individuals.

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to try to contribute to the research about adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in public libraries. The two research questions this study attempts to answer are: How do the public libraries in a Swedish city work to increase accessibility for adults on the autism spectrum? And, what possibilities are there for the public libraries to help adults on the spectrum be more socially included and increase accessibility (as defined by the social model of disability) to create a more socially sustainable library? The study has two different research methods, because the lack of previous research necessitated a basic quantitative survey to start with. The survey was distributed to public libraries in a Swedish city. The results of the survey showed, with a few exceptions, that the respondents do not work for adults with ASD. In addition to the survey, a qualitative comparative analysis of international projects was made to examine different ways of working towards the group. The projects were analysed to examine ways to work towards the group, based on an understanding of barriers based on the social model of disability. The analysis showed that projects often contained an informational course on ASD and that a social network was an important component for further skills development. It is problematic, from a social sustainability perspective, when a group in society is excluded from the mind set of societal institutions. Adults with ASD are by law a prioritized group for the Swedish libraries and the work towards accessibility should reflect that.

The aim of this PhD thesis was to illustrate the modernisation of Swedish and British welfare policies during the time of the EU’s Lisbon Agenda which aimed at reconciling social protection with labour market integration. Specifically it should be illustrated if both countries managed to cope with the weaknesses and shortcomings that European policy recommendations identified in relation to unemployment benefits, social assistance schemes, parental leave systems and childcare subsidies. The attempt to grasp which role (European) ‘ideas’ were able to play in national welfare modernisation processes between 1998-2008 constituted a key consideration in this regard. By using a case-study design it is worked out that Sweden and Great Britain followed their European recommendations; not completely but significantly. Yet, causal connections can hardly be established and the overall development doesn’t constitute a ‘top-down’ implementation of EU recommendations. In both cases a discourse analysis reveals that the realization of European ideas rather depends on party-political preferences and the arrangement of national discourses. It is shown that ideas become powerful in puzzling situations when existing discourses are challenged and in line with the work of authors like Jørgen Goul Anderssen or Vivien A. Schmidt this thesis confirms the importance of an actor-centred perspective for explaining welfare policies. Considering Sweden as a socialdemocratic and Great Britain as a liberal welfare regime the PhD thesis aims as well at contributing to a better understanding of how policy reforms affected these two differing regime types. For the time during the Lisbon Agenda it holds that they moved ‘closer’ to each other and that welfare modernisation can be described as an exercise of making the social democratic welfare regime a better social democratic welfare regime and of making the liberal welfare regime a better liberal welfare regime. Yet, in 2008 the international financial crisis hit the EU and two years later the Lisbon Strategy was replaced by the EU 2020 Strategy. The PhD thesis takes these developments into account, illustrates the major changes in Swedish and British welfare policies and compares them to the research period. Rather untypical developments in Sweden lead to the conclusion that there might be a certain ‘carousel-effect’ which seems to kind of reallocate ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ between the different welfare regimes. For Great Britain the conclusion is drawn, that the conservative coalition government triggered a transformation process which wasn’t first and foremost caused by the international financial crisis but represented more of a political choice to make the liberal welfare regime more liberal.

No description available.

Staff who work in front line, direct contact support positions with community based clients with acquired brain injuries (ABI) hold unique responsibilities, and face unique challenges in their work due to the combination of three key factors: autonomous work environments, socially sanctioned power status over clients, and the decision making deficits of clients with ABI. These factors further contribute challenges to staff in the presently complex and ambiguous outreach context, where the embedded ideologies of the medical model of treatment remain in tension with the purported ideologies of the social model of disability and client self determination that drive outreach services. Using constructivist grounded theory methods and narrative and interpretive analysis strategies, this research interviewed fifteen (15) ABI outreach support workers to explore and examine their perceptions of the outreach context, how they negotiate decision spaces, and how they deal with the central ethical dilemma of outreach - achieving balance between their duty of care and the client's dignity of risk. The thesis documents decision making strategies used by the interview participants, examines the factors that influence their decision space when in the field with clients, and explores the role staff awareness of professional and personal values plays in making decisions in the best of interest of the client. Staff awareness is shown to be a critical, yet oft neglected factor in consideration of staff ethical decision making in ABI outreach. Implications for best practices in the field are discussed. / PhD Doctorate

At the most general level, this project seeks to engage the question, "What is disability?" The conceptual exploration is undertaken against the background of the philosophical literature addressing the nature of disease, illness, and disability. This work contends that much of the literature bearing on the nature of disability fails to distinguish sufficiently between different domains of philosophical explanation and concern--ontological, non-moral normative, and moral normative, respectively. Specifically, this involves a failure to distinguish among (a) disputes regarding the proper ontological characterization of disability, particularly as expressed in medical-scientific explanations of the phenomenon; (b) disputes regarding the role of non-moral (aesthetic, epistemic, cultural) values or norms in the constitution of those explanations (i.e., non-moral normative concerns); and (c) disputes regarding moral and political considerations that shape the character of the social reality within which persons with disabilities live (i.e., moral normative concerns). This work advances the thesis that disabilities, like diseases, are "natural," in the sense that they are not mere social constructions, but that values of various sorts nevertheless do enter into the identification of states of affairs as disability, and that the "disability" designation has important socio-cultural implications that are inevitably the subject of ongoing political negotiation. Specifically, this work argues that "disability" involves a complex interplay of ontological realities, non-moral normative, and moral normative considerations or values. This interplay is captured well by a "biopsychosocial" (BPS) approach to disability, one which incorporates these various considerations into a single account, involving an integration of different levels of explanation (biological, psychological, social) of the disability phenomenon. This work first develops the theoretical underpinnings and rationale for a BPS approach to disability (Chs. 1-3), then explores in detail some of the relevant ontological (Ch. 4), non-moral and moral normative (Ch. 5), and sociological and political (Ch. 6) considerations that enter into the identification of states of affairs as "disability," concluding (in Ch. 7) with a brief consideration of some of the study's implications for understanding the nature of disability, the future of disability studies and the disability rights movement, and the relationship between the disabled and the broader society.

Informed by the disciplines of disability studies and interpretive sociology, and using the social model of disability and the collective identity model, this dissertation pursues an investigation of underemployment. Underemployment, conceptualized as the underutilized skills and knowledge of the employed and unemployed, occurs at higher levels amongst disabled persons than among non-disabled people (Canada, 2009). Semi-structured interviews with 14 underemployed disabled people conducted, to investigate the experiences of disabled persons who worked in the fields of education, computer, healthcare, fitness, environment, travel, social work, government and non-government agencies. In addition, Canadian social policies were analyzed to address the research questions: 1) How do disabled workers understand and address experiences of underemployment? 2) How do organizations and social policies account for underemployment amongst disabled persons? 3) How can practices which acknowledge and enhance collective identity be used to address underemployment and advance the disability movement? 4) How can underemployment amongst disabled persons be addressed at the organizational level? The texts of these narratives and Canadian social policies were analyzed using a critical interpretative textual analysis approach. The analysis demonstrates the depths of the negative consequences of high levels of underemployment resulting from structural, environmental and attitudinal barriers. Such consequences include lack of opportunities for recognition, compensation, promotion, accommodations, and career fulfillment, as well as poor mental, physical, emotional and social health. This research study is unique as it reveals the struggles that disabled persons experienced in work contexts, their narratives of resistance, and their recommendations for socio-political change to build more inclusive work environments

Informed by the disciplines of disability studies and interpretive sociology, and using the social model of disability and the collective identity model, this dissertation pursues an investigation of underemployment. Underemployment, conceptualized as the underutilized skills and knowledge of the employed and unemployed, occurs at higher levels amongst disabled persons than among non-disabled people (Canada, 2009). Semi-structured interviews with 14 underemployed disabled people conducted, to investigate the experiences of disabled persons who worked in the fields of education, computer, healthcare, fitness, environment, travel, social work, government and non-government agencies. In addition, Canadian social policies were analyzed to address the research questions: 1) How do disabled workers understand and address experiences of underemployment? 2) How do organizations and social policies account for underemployment amongst disabled persons? 3) How can practices which acknowledge and enhance collective identity be used to address underemployment and advance the disability movement? 4) How can underemployment amongst disabled persons be addressed at the organizational level? The texts of these narratives and Canadian social policies were analyzed using a critical interpretative textual analysis approach. The analysis demonstrates the depths of the negative consequences of high levels of underemployment resulting from structural, environmental and attitudinal barriers. Such consequences include lack of opportunities for recognition, compensation, promotion, accommodations, and career fulfillment, as well as poor mental, physical, emotional and social health. This research study is unique as it reveals the struggles that disabled persons experienced in work contexts, their narratives of resistance, and their recommendations for socio-political change to build more inclusive work environments

This thesis deals with question of Scandinavian social model's transferability on Baltic countries and Iceland. The aim of the thesis is to establish whether and to what extent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland are ready to adopt the system. Three main methods are used in the thesis, namely: analysis of macroeconomic indicators and competitiveness indices, synthesis using the magic pentagon and comparison via coefficient of variation. The thesis comprises three main parts. The first one deals with theory and methodology. The second part applies information gained from databases of world organisations and follows their development. The last part then compares these figures.