Family policies promoting gender equality and parents’ shared responsibility for their children tend to assume good parental collaboration post separation. However, this assumption obscures the reality of conflict and intimate partner violence (IPV) in some separated families. Focusing on Sweden, this article examines the 2016 reform which implies that the state ceases acting as an intermediary to organise child maintenance unless ‘special reasons’, including the experience of IPV, are invoked. Thus, the Swedish guaranteed child maintenance scheme became conditional. Drawing on interviews with resident parents and case officers at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA), this article suggests that the reform increases the vulnerability of resident parents in several ways. Moreover, the ‘special reasons’ exemption creates a new distinction between ‘violent’ and ‘normal’ families, which case workers struggle to administer, and which leads to a withdrawal of state support for many families.

This paper aims to get a finer understanding of the social interactions between staff members and resident service-users living in housing with special services in Sweden, by looking at the ways they communicate using mobile phones or the Internet. Previous research on disability and technology has focused mainly on issues pertaining to barriers relative to the accessibility of telecommunication technology or to the way disabled people make use of such technology. However, this research has paid little attention to the type of social relationships that are created and facilitated by means of such mediated interactions.

In this paper, we attempt to tackle this issue by answering the Symposium’s invitation to investigate “how connectivity and disconnectivity can give rise to and facilitate social inclusion and democratic processes, as well as exclusion, isolation and conflict.” Drawing upon ethnographical data, we analyse three different situations. First, a situation of (dis)connection initiated by a resident service-user. Second, a situation of (dis)connection initiated by a staff member. Third, the use of e-mail correspondence as both an alternative and a complementary form of communication initiated by a resident service-user. In doing so, we call attention to the fact that interactions imply (dis)connections between various parties and that telecommunication technology adds a layer of complexity to the already blurred lines between private and public spheres in housing with special services.

This paper aims to get a finer understanding of the social interactions between staff members and resident service-users living in housing with special services in Sweden, by looking at the ways they communicate using mobile phones or the Internet. Previous research on disability and technology has focused mainly on issues pertaining to barriers relative to the accessibility of telecommunication technology or to the way disabled people make use of such technology. However, this research has paid little attention to the type of social relationships that are created and facilitated by means of such mediated interactions.

In this paper, we attempt to tackle this issue by answering the Symposium’s invitation to investigate “how connectivity and disconnectivity can give rise to and facilitate social inclusion and democratic processes, as well as exclusion, isolation and conflict.” Drawing upon ethnographical data, we analyse three different situations. First, a situation of (dis)connection initiated by a resident service-user. Second, a situation of (dis)connection initiated by a staff member. Third, the use of e-mail correspondence as both an alternative and a complementary form of communication initiated by a resident service-user. In doing so, we call attention to the fact that interactions imply (dis)connections between various parties and that telecommunication technology adds a layer of complexity to the already blurred lines between private and public spheres in housing with special services.

To promote human flourishing throughout society, opportunities for arts participation must encompass all citizens. A primary means to promote this is arts education and activities for schoolchildren. Equal opportunities for participation are currently not enjoyed by students with disabilities. In a population-based and cross-sectional study carried out on a 2016 public-health survey including 27,395 students with and without disabilities in the Swedish region of Skåne, it is found that all categories of students with disabilities experience some degree of diminished participation across six different arts activities. Students with ADHD/ADD and dyslexia suffer consistent diminished participation across all six activities, while students with other disabilities are ‘compensated’ for lesser participation in some activities by overrepresentation in other activities. This suggest that all students with disabilities are subject to external perspectives about what is appropriate for them, based on perceptions about their impairments and, possibly, combined with gender. Finally, it is argued that disability invites us to broaden our views of who can engage in various art forms, under which premises and how arts can be taught. This opens ‘opportunities for innovation’ in arts education drawing on the basic impulse of the arts: to continuously look beyond boundaries and facilitate emancipatory expression.

As it is the case in many European countries, psychosocial disabilities have become an important concern in Sweden. Persons with psychosocial disabilities' experiences of various societal domains such as school, work, family life, leisure activities and contact with welfare agencies need a complex analysis which takes into account both personal and contextual factors. This article draws on 15 interviews with informants with psychosocial disabilities and discusses their experiences and the difficulties that they met during their lives. These experiences are conceptualised with the framework of "active citizenship" developed by Hvinden et al. (2016), which distinguishes three core dimensions of active citizenship: security, influence and autonomy. The empirically grounded article discusses the opportunities and barriers that encourage or hamper persons with psychosocial disabilities to be active citizens in the Swedish welfare state and underlines some of the main challenges that stand in the way of their "full and effective participation in society" (CRPD, article 1).

In his lecture about Citizenship and Social Class, T.H. Marshall noted that ‘societies in which citizenship is a developing institution create an image of an ideal citizenship against which achievement can be measured and towards which aspiration can be directed’. The ideal of citizenship is not neutral, however, and various feminist scholars have called attention to the fact that citizenship tends to be tailored to the situation of able-bodied, adult, heterosexual and full-time employed males. As a consequence, people who do not fit this template risk finding themselves in a position of ‘second class citizens’.

This paper investigates how citizenship is continuously being imagined, reworked and negotiated in different societal arenas and how people claim their right to participate in society and to be recognised as valuable members of their society. The study focuses on the case of disabled people in Sweden claiming their right to full citizenship.

The empirical analysis is grounded on an online blog called ‘Full Participation. Now’ which was created five months prior to the 2010 general elections in Sweden. The blog’s aim was to get the politicians’ attention to the issue of full citizenship for persons with disabilities and the analysis shows how citizenship for disabled people is being (re-)imagined by bloggers who point at discriminatory practices at political, community and personal level. The analysis also shows how citizenship is negotiated by the bloggers who imagine citizenship in various – and sometimes contradictory – ways. Finally, the analysis indicates that the ideal of citizenship found in the blog posts not only develops in relation to the political arena but also in relation to everyday activities and experiences. 

Focusing on the case of disability, this book examines what happens when previously marginalised individuals obtain the legal recognition of their equal citizenship rights but cannot fully enjoy these rights because of structural inequality.

Bringing together disability and citizenship studies, it explores an original conceptualisation of disability as a distinct social division and approaches citizenship as a developing institution. In addition to providing innovative theoretical perspectives on citizenship and disability, this book is grounded in the empirical analysis of the claims of disability activists in Sweden. Drawing on a wide range of blog posts and debate articles, it sheds light upon the inequality and domination faced by disabled people in Sweden and underlines the disability activists’ proactive ideas and solutions for constructing a more equal citizenship.

This book will be of interest to scholars, activists and policymakers in the fields of disability, citizenship, social inequality, human rights, politics, activism, social welfare and sociology.

While the rights of disabled people are widely recognised by governments around the world, the costs of disability measures seem to be a major barrier to their implementation. Disability research needs therefore to engage with the issue of costs in disability politics. Drawing upon citizenship theory, this article considers the salience of costs in the development of citizenship rights for various groups of citizens in a given socio-economic context. Moreover, it highlights the role of social movements in this development and their need to navigate the recognition-redistribution dilemma. The article proposes that the written claims of disability activists offer a rich empirical material to unpack the complexity of costs in disability politics in a given context. Focusing on the case of Sweden, the article examines 312 blog posts and 162 debate articles. Three different ways of referring to costs are discussed, as the analysis shows that the disability activists criticise, embrace and reframe the issue of costs in disability politics.

Citizenship has become a central concept in discussions about the participation and inclusion of disabled people. Drawing upon life-course interviews with Swedish people having different impairments (difficulties in seeing, psychosocial difficulties, intellectual impairments and mobility difficulties) this paper tackles two issues. First, the interviewees’ experience of citizenship, apprehended as the ability to engage in the public arena, and, second, the issue of a ‘disability identity’. According to Ellison (2000), the contemporary societal context encourages individuals to engage in the pursuit, or defence, of particular interests and/or social rights. Citizenship is to be understood as a process of engagement, although solidarities are likely to be temporary in a fragmented public sphere. This understanding of citizenship takes into account the need to have access to power networks and resources to engage in the public arena. In a similar way, Lister’s (1998) dynamic reading of citizenship stresses agency, embedded in and shaped by social structures and relations. Lister also raises the issue of differences and warns against ‘false universalisms’, which exclude a part of the population. She suggests the concept of ‘politics of solidarity in difference’, which appreciates identities as manifold and fluid, and considers that people engage when they identify a clear common goal.

Relating this discussion to disability, this paper questions the existence of a ‘disability identity’, which brings people to engage in the public sphere about disability issues. This is a contested topic in Disability Studies; while various authors have stressed the existence of a strong collective identity as a founding element of the disability movement, others have observed that members of disability organisations do not identify as disabled, have underlined the fragmentation of the disability movement and have questioned whether people with mental health conditions should be considered as ‘disabled’.

Starting from the observation that discourses about citizenship with regard to persons with a disability are often being linked to notions of ‘full inclusion and participation in the community’, this paper sets out to explore the meaning of the concept of community, which often remains vaguely defined. ‘Community’ is a complex concept and researchers have highlighted that communities exist both as a physical place and as a locus of affiliation or identification. Furthermore, while some understand ‘community’ as a space with clear boundaries – which can be physical, psychological, social, temporal or cultural – others view it as something fluid and without precise definition. It can also be noted that contrasting emotions are related to different conceptions of ‘community’, ranging from nostalgia to fear and envy.

The analysis brought forward in this paper begins with a discussion about the use of the concept of community in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It continues with investigating what ‘community’ means from the point of view of persons with disabilities. The analysis is grounded in life-course interviews with Swedish women and men from three generations (born in 1950s, 1970s, 1990s) and having different impairments (difficulties in seeing, psychosocial difficulties, intellectual impairments and mobility difficulties), and adopts an intersectional approach, i.e. the analysis takes into account aspects of gender, age and impairment, with a particular attention for comparing psychosocial difficulties, i.e. mental health problems, with other types of impairments. It is argued that a discussion of the concept of ‘community’ grounded in empirical data (life-course interviews and the CRPD) brings fruitful insights for the understanding of citizenship with regard to disability.

The ideal of citizenship is continuously being re-imagined by citizens who claim their right to participate in and be recognized as valuable members of their society. While scholars have documented the struggles of diverse groups of citizens, the citizenship claims of persons with disabilities have received less attention. The study focuses on a blog initiated by disability rights activists five months prior to the 2010 Swedish general elections with the aim to put the issue of disability on the political agenda and claim “full participation”. A content analysis was performed on a selection of 70 blogposts published as a book by four Swedish disability organizations to find out what the bloggers wrote about and how they proceeded to claim full participation in society. The analysis indicates that the bloggers positioned themselves as ordinary citizens by comparing their situation to citizens without disabilities. The ideal of citizenship underpinning the blogger’s claims corresponds to a traditional masculine conception of citizenship emphasizing independence, control and access to the public sphere. A key difference is, however, that the bloggers also challenge the disembodied notion of citizenship assuming that citizens are disconnected from their bodily needs.

This paper investigates how citizenship is continuously being imagined, reworked and negotiated in different societal arenas and how people claim their right to participate in society and to be recognised as a valuable member of their society. The study focuses on the case of disabled people in Sweden who feel that they are considered as second class citizens and claim their right to full citizenship.

In his lecture about Citizenship and Social Class, T.H. Marshall noted that ‘there is no universal principle that determines what those [i.e. citizenship] rights and duties shall be, but societies in which citizenship is a developing institution create an image of an ideal citizenship against which achievement can be measured and towards which aspiration can be directed’. The ideal of citizenship is not neutral, however, and various feminist scholars have called attention to the fact that citizenship tends to be tailored to the situation of able-bodied, adult, heterosexual and full-time employed males. As a consequence, people who do not fit this template find themselves in a position of ‘second class citizens’.

The empirical analysis is grounded on an online blog called ‘Full Participation. Now’ which was created five months prior to the federal elections of 2010 in Sweden. The blog’s aim was to get the politicians’ attention to the issue of full citizenship for persons with disabilities and the analysis shows how citizenship for disabled people is being (re-)imagined by bloggers who point at discriminatory practices at political, community and personal level. The analysis also shows how citizenship is negotiated by the bloggers who imagine citizenship in various – and sometimes contradictory – ways. Finally, the analysis indicates that the ideal of citizenship found in the blog posts not only develops in relation to the political arena but also in relation to everyday activities and experiences. 

Purpose: To identify the characteristics of peer-reviewed literature on citizenship and disability publishedin English from 1985 to 2015. Method: A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O’Malleyframework. Several databases were searched for peer-reviewed journal articles including the terms citizenshipand disability, impairment or handicap in their abstract or title; published between 1985 and 2015; inEnglish. Results: A total of 295 articles were included. Key findings are (1) the number of articles about disabilityand citizenship increased dramatically over the past three decades, (2) the meaning of citizenship isoften left undiscussed, (3) citizenship is more often discussed in terms of access to social rights and less soin regards to contributions to society and participation in family life, technology and culture, (4) disabledpeople tend to be represented as a homogeneous category, (5) most studies are qualitative and non-participatory.Conclusions: To broaden knowledge about the situation, membership and participation of personswith disabilities in society, further research should develop the conceptual use of citizenship inrelation to disability, explore different research designs, investigate various citizenship sectors and take intoaccount the complexity of personal and social situations of persons with disabilities.

From a social science perspective, disability research is about the relation between persons with disabilities and their environment. A number of researchers in this field have applied the concept of citizenship to point out and reflect about barriers and opportunities for being a full member of a (national) community. Indeed, the citizenship approach is particularly relevant for understanding disability from a rights-based perspective and studies have e.g. shown how disabled people have claimed their rights to enjoy full participation in society and how disability policy affects people’s access to citizenship rights. In other areas of social sciences and the humanities, the concept of citizenship has been discussed and utilized to analyse topics such as processes of inclusion and exclusion both inside and across national boundaries, identity and community formation, claims for various types of individual and group rights, etc. This paper presents a literature review of articles published in English, referring to both disability and citizenship in their title, abstract or keywords. It is suggested that the link between ‘citizenship’ and ‘disability’ offers a fertile ground for both disability research and citizenship studies at large. Accordingly, the paper provides an overview of the major contributions made by scientific articles combining both concepts and highlights promising topics, questions and methods for future research.

This article analyses the claims of contemporary disability rights activists mobilising in a context where de facto second-class citizenship co-exists with legal and political declarations about the rights of disabled people. As an empirical case, it focuses on the blog ‘Full Participation.Now’, which was initiated by disability rights activists in Sweden. Drawing upon citizenship research, the article points to the tensions and dilemmas featuring the bloggers’ demand for participation and equality, as well as the challenges relative to their struggle. Although the bloggers formulate contrasting arguments, the article highlights that the activists share a common aspiration for ‘full citizenship’.

From a social science perspective, disability research is about the relation between persons with disabilities and their environment. Several disability researchers have studied this relationship and applied the concept of citizenship to characterise the barriers and opportunities for being a full member of society. The citizenship approach is particularly relevant for understanding disability from a rights-based perspective and many studies have e.g. shown how disabled people have claimed their rights to enjoy full participation in society. It can also be noted that the relevance of citizenship is highlighted by the Nordic Network on Disability Research (NNDR) conference as it is a suggested theme for papers. This paper presents a literature review of articles published in English, referring to both disability and citizenship in their title, abstract or keywords. It is suggested that the link between citizenship and disability offers a fertile ground for disability research which has however not fully been explored yet. The paper concludes that developments of this concept in feminist theory and citizenship studies are promising sources of inspiration, both for theoretical developments and for empirical research about everyday experiences of living with a disability.

This dissertation aims to contribute to sociology, citizenship studies and disability studies by responding to T.H. Marshall’s ([1950]1992) invitation to examine the development of equal citizenship in a context of structural inequality, and Jenkins’ (1991) call to consider disability as a dimension of social stratification. Based on the analysis of blog posts and debate articles published in daily newspapers and written by Swedish disability activists (n=474), this dissertation argues that disability activism can be considered as a citizenship struggle claiming equal membership and rejecting the structural inequalities caused by disability. The analysis highlights a number of tensions and contradictions between and within the various components of citizenship as well as between and within the claims of the disability activists. These observations correspond to T.H. Marshall’s insight that citizenship is a developing institution full of contradictions, and to the observations of some citizenship scholars, arguing that citizenship claims-making features tensions and dilemmas. Moreover, the dissertation is in line with T.H. Marshall’s insight that the inclusion of previously excluded individuals – in this case, disabled people – as equal citizens brings forward important challenges, with respect to social (in)equality. In particular, challenges regarding recognition (who do we consider and value as full citizens?) and redistribution (how do we redistribute socio-material resources?). Based on the empirical analysis, this dissertation argues that the disability activists’ claims are defensive and proactive because the activists engage in both defending existing social rights and proposing new ways to construct citizenship for disabled people in Sweden. Finally, this dissertation points at different strategies used by the disability activists and at the dilemmas that some of these strategies imply. Among others, the Swedish disability activists highlight the importance of equal rights, while recognising the reality of costs; demand that disabled people be considered as ordinary citizens while asking for the accommodation of their specific needs; and view the state as the protector of equal citizenship while criticising it as a cause of the structural inequalities faced by disabled people. Thus, this dissertation opens new perspectives on citizenship and disability, and encourages future research to continue the analysis of citizenship in relation to structural inequalities.

This chapter discusses the Swedish disability movement has used a combination of strategies to challenge the exclusion of persons with disabilities and claim the right to participate in society. It considers how disability activism became an established movement in the 1980s and 1990s and underline the influence of international ideas and initiatives, including the Independent Living philosophy and the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons. The chapter traces the history of the Swedish disability movement and points at the differences within the movement and at the changes that have taken place in the movement over the years in the struggle for citizenship of persons with disabilities in Sweden. In spite of the fact that disability is increasingly framed in terms of human and civil rights in Sweden, disability research is lagging behind. Inspired by the American Independent Living movement, Adolf Ratzka introduced the idea of personal assistance in Sweden.

By the adoption of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Personswith Disabilities, many countries have committed to providing conditionsfor persons with disabilities to actively participate in the community. Thisarticle explores the meaning of active citizenship for persons withpsychosocial disabilities and focuses in particular on the role of thestate. Illustrated with examples from Sweden, the analysis underlines thecomplexity of the relationship between mental health and society bytaking into account several models of disability, different conceptions ofcitizenship and the broader socio-economic context. We suggest thatthe use of a dynamic approach to psychosocial disabilities is appropriatefor dealing with the manifold issue of mental health in welfare states. Inconclusion, we point at important challenges facing the realization offull inclusion and citizenship in contemporary societies.

By the adoption of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), many European countries have committed to providing conditions for persons with disabilities to actively participate in the community. This paper sets out to explore the relevance of ‘Active Citizenship’ for persons with psychosocial disabilities with a focus on the role of the state through social policy. The analysis points at the complexity of the relationship between mental health issues and society by taking into account various conceptual models of disability, but also different conceptions of the citizen. Furthermore, the article discusses the role of the state through the analysis of main international reports and strategies on mental health in Europe and concludes on pointing at important challenges facing the realisation of the goal of full inclusion and Active Citizenship.

This article examines the significance of citizenship with respect to disability. The article first highlights the idea of citizenship as "social contract". This means the possession of civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights as well as the exercise of duties in society. Due to societal barriers, many disabled persons have difficulties fulfilling citizenship roles. Further, this article draws on citizenship theories; it examines three types of citizenship participation – the social citizen, the autonomous citizen and the political citizen – and discusses their promises and ableist implications. To counterbalance the exclusionary aspects of citizenship, we argue that human rights prove important. At the same time, human rights are more easily proclaimed than enforced and citizenship remains a precondition for effectively implementing human rights. The article concludes that citizenship is a relevant but also ambivalent concept when it comes to disability; it calls for a critical understanding of citizenship in Disability Studies.