Shaping justice : defining the disability benefit category in Swedish social policy

Avhandlingens søkelys er på de behov, kriterier som finnes "verdige" og aksektable i sosialpolitikken til å inngå i kategorien funksjonshemmet. Definisjonen er et utfall av konsektuelle sosiale prosesser og fortolkninger. Funksjonshemming som sosialpolitisk og administrativ kategori er et resultat av sosiale konstruksjoner og basert på bestemte normative forutsetninger og kulturelle fortolkninger. This thesis is about what impairments qualify to be charachterised as disability in Swedish social security legislation, and which principles are used to decide who is entitled to social security benefits as disabled. Through empirical case analyses the author shows that very different conclusions can demark a disability category in welfare policy. The analysis show that the definitions of this category are not always clear or sharp. Formal administrative principles and different underlying conceptions define a disability category in particular ways that bring different outcomes and demarcation lines of the category. The definition of disability category in the result of contextual social prosesses and interpretations ; disability as a social political and administrative category is in turn a result of specific social constructs and based on defined normative promises and cultural interpretations.