Imposed identities and limited opportunities: Advocacy agency staff perspectives on the construction of their clients with intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disability is commonly conceptualised as stigmatised identity; however, within the literature, the notion of a damaged identity is contested. The aim of this research was to explore the social construction of intellectual disability from the perspective of staff who work closely with people with intellectual disabilities. Informed by a contextualist perspective, this research was based on interviews with five staff members of an advocacy agency in a regional area of Australia. Causal layered analysis was used to deconstruct the interview data. Analysis of the interactions that emerged across the causal layers revealed a complex dynamic of world views, which served to dehumanise people with intellectual disabilities and blame them for their own fate (victim blaming). For transformative change to occur, understandings of the 'problems' of intellectual disability must be reformulated and those social structures and processes that support the relationship between the powerful and the powerless must be challenged

Demographic implications of social exclusion in central and eastern Europe

This report studies poverty and social exclusion in central and eastern Europe. The first part of the report describes the impact of social and economic policies on the social exclusion of vulnerable groups and identifies types and degrees of social deprivation. The second study focuses on developing and evaluating regional statistical indicators of social deprivation and investigates the emergence of new forms of social exclusion. The report considers common characteristics that drive poverty and social exclusion, such as a poor employment situation, adequacy and coverage of the social protection system, demographic characteristics, family composition and age. It could become a useful tool to help policy-makers adjust the supply of social services to needs, and target support and social cohesion measures at vulnerable population groups

The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Income Distribution in the Enlarged EU

Tax and benefit systems in the enlarged EU vary significantly in size and structure. We examine how taxesand benefits shape income distributions in 19 EU countries, focusing on the differences between WesternEuropean countries (EU15) and Eastern European countries (Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia). We useEUROMOD, the European tax-benefit microsimulation model, which simulates taxes and benefits forrepresentative samples of household micro-data and through a common framework which allows theanalysis of cross-country differences on a comparable basis. The analysis concentrates on the distributionand composition of incomes, and the effect of taxes and benefits on poverty and inequality

Young people with intellectual disabilities attending mainstream and segregated schooling: perceived stigma, social comparison and future aspirations

Mainstream schooling is a key policy in the promotion of social inclusion of young people with learning disabilities. Yet there is limited evidence about the school experience of young people about to leave mainstream as compared with segregated education, and how it impacts on their relative view of self and future aspirations. Sixty young people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in their final year of secondary school participated in this study. Twenty-eight individuals came from mainstream schools and 32 attended segregated school. They completed a series of self-report measures on perceptions of stigma, social comparison to a more disabled and non-disabled peer and the likelihood involved in attaining their future goals. The majority of participants from both groups reported experiencing stigmatized treatment in the local area where they lived. The mainstream group reported significant additional stigma at school. In terms of social comparisons, both groups compared themselves positively with a more disabled peer and with a non-disabled peer. While the mainstream pupils had more ambitious work-related aspirations, both groups felt it equally likely that they would attain their future goals. Although the participants from segregated schools came from significantly more deprived areas and had lower scores on tests of cognitive functioning, neither of these factors appeared to have an impact on their experience of stigma, social comparisons or future aspirations. Irrespective of schooling environment, the young people appeared to be able to cope with the threats to their identities and retained a sense of optimism about their future. Nevertheless, negative treatment reported by the children was a serious source of concern and there is a need for schools to promote the emotional well-being of pupils with intellectual disabilities