Background: Recent studies have identified increased opportunities forparticipating in the community for young adults with intellectual disabilities.However, paternalistic and infantilising attitudes remains. People withintellectual disabilities are still commonly seen as “non-adult others” and aspersons of limited credibility. This view has implications in a number of areas,not at least in relation to the welfare system.
Method: The methodology is empirically grounded in semi-structured qualitativeinterviews with 13 middle-aged men and women in long-term receipt of disabilityservices. The analyses were conducted both thematically and by using discursivetools such as interpretative repertoires and subject position, and in light ofFricker’s (2007) work on.
Results: The analyses highlight that practices within disability services risk to create acircumscribed and conditioned lived space for people who receive such services. This isillustrated by discussing: Marginalising structures inflects understanding of oneself;Working life and paradoxical discourses; and Gendered ranges of socio-spatial mobility.All examples point at limited resources in the form of experiences and socialinteractions, and the social knowledge gained in such experiences.
Conclusion: Although guided by the ambition to care and protect, structuraltransactions provided by the welfare system run the risk of simultaneouslydepriving individuals of experiences as well as the hermeneutical resourcesnecessary to interpretatively frame and make sense of their situation. Theinterviewee are put in an unfair disadvantage when it comes to making sense ofsocial experience, as well as articulating expectations on support. Support thatoften is essential in relation to exercising choices and making claims of legalrights, and creating a, for one self satisfactory, everyday life.