Disability, Politics and Citizenship

Abstract

This chapter will return to the relationship between the personal and political, originally discussed in Chapter 1. Its main focus will be on collective empowerment and this will be discussed in relation to the rise of the disability movement in Britain. The discussion will draw upon the recent reintroduction of the idea of citizenship, heralded by the publication of the Citizen’s Charter. It will also attempt to deal with some of the rejoinders that have been made since I originally published my claim that the disability movement was a political movement with more in common with the newly emerging social movements than either corporatist interest group politics or humanitarian, charitable and voluntary organisation responses.