Rescuing a social relational understanding of disability

Abstract

This paper considers some of the themes to be found in current UK debates about the social model of disability. It commences with a review of the origins and key features of the social model, then moves on to an examination of current critiques of its efficacy. The argument advanced is that the radical ideas that laid the foundation for the social model of disability contain a social relational kernel that now needs to be rescued and developed. A rescue is required because this social relational understanding of disability has become over-shadowed by the social model itself as the latter has risen in stature, and has been obscured in the heat of recent debates about the model's strengths and weaknesses.