Some Reflections on Clifford’s “The War on Disabled People”: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe

digital

Article

Magazine

RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI

Fascicle

RIVISTA INTERNAZIONALE DI SCIENZE SOCIALI - 2022 - 2. A Special Issue on “Economics of Disability”

Title

Some Reflections on Clifford’s “The War on Disabled People”: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe

Author

Giuliana Parodi

Publisher

Vita e Pensiero

Format

Article |

Pdf

Online from

06-2022

Doi

10.26350/000518_000098

Issn

0035-676X (print) | 1827-7918 (digital)

€ 6.00

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Description

The review of the book by Ellen Clifford The War on Disabled People (2020), focussing on the UK, prompts reflections on other recently published books on disability, i.e. Ryan’s Crippled (2019), again on the UK, Cullinan and others (2015) The Economics of Disability, on Ireland, and Agovino and others (2020) Aspetti Socioeconomici della disabilità: lavoro, reddito e politiche, about Italy. Despite the very different contexts and methodology of analysis, the findings of these books consistently show the inferior position of disabled people in western societies with respect to the labour market, income levels and risk of poverty. This situation has been exacerbated by the austerity imposed after the 2008 crisis, both financially and in terms of reduced services provided by local authorities. These results appear to confirm the view that the inferior situation of disabled people points to a systemic social problem, which only a deep transformative process can alter.