Disability in the World of Work: Representations of Productivism and Cruel Promises

The article contends that we can witness a passionate embracing of an interpretative grid, structuring, constructing and governing the ways the people, whose lives are profoundly affected by disability (either as being disabled themselves or as primary caregivers), categorize the world, their subjectivities and the others. This grid is based on the image of exchange and investment, whose moralized counterpart is the deservingness/undeservingness pattern of justifying what one is entitled to and what one has a right to demand. In this perspective the “social value” and inclusion of the disabled ultimately appear to depend on the participation in the “work utopia” – the morally dignified imagery of productivity, accompanied by stigmatization of disability assistance. This identity formation framework should be regarded as an unfortunate way of directing and governing the collective energies, demanding social inclusion. It generates and legitimizes the lack of solidarity with the most vulnerable members of society and even among their communities as this case clearly shows.