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Promoting the right to work of disabled people? : a historical comparative analysis of Sweden, Great Britain and Taiwan

Wang, Yu-yu Nancy (2001) Promoting the right to work of disabled people? : a historical comparative analysis of Sweden, Great Britain and Taiwan. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent. (doi:10.22024/UniKent/01.02.86207) (KAR id:86207)

Abstract

This study aims to compare and analyse the similarities and differences in the approaches adopted by Sweden, Great Britain and Taiwan, on the issue of the right to work of disabled people. Drawing from the three welfare models proposed by EspingAndersen (1990, 1999), the study attempts to examine the validity of the three models in explaining the differing approaches taken by the three countries. The historical comparative analysis method is used to answer the three research questions posed in this study. Data was collected mainly by the documentary analysis method. However, to fill the gap in information that the documents did not provide, in-depth interviews, email, postal, and telephone contacts were also carried out as complementary data collection methods This study shows that the welfare models are useful in explaining the differing degrees of inclusiveness in terms of the main policy directions of the three countries. However, a distinction between the 'provision' type and 'market intervention' type of programmes should be made, in order to capture the differences in the power structure and the mechanisms in the differing welfare models. In addition, in all three countries, the role of the disability movement in changing the definitions of disability in the policies has to be highlighted Furthermore, I argue that in all three countries, the labour market programmes specifically designed for disabled people are based on the capitalist value of individual market merits. If this value is not changed fundamentally and if the right to work does not include the right to participate in the labour market and to be included in the society, regardless of an individual's market merits, labour market programmes in all three countnes will continue to promote the right to work of only those groups of disabled people who tend to be more competitive in the labour market.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD))
DOI/Identification number: 10.22024/UniKent/01.02.86207
Additional information: This thesis has been digitised by EThOS, the British Library digitisation service, for purposes of preservation and dissemination. It was uploaded to KAR on 09 February 2021 in order to hold its content and record within University of Kent systems. It is available Open Access using a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivatives (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) licence so that the thesis and its author, can benefit from opportunities for increased readership and citation. This was done in line with University of Kent policies (https://www.kent.ac.uk/is/strategy/docs/Kent%20Open%20Access%20policy.pdf). If you feel that your rights are compromised by open access to this thesis, or if you would like more information about its availability, please contact us at ResearchSupport@kent.ac.uk and we will seriously consider your claim under the terms of our Take-Down Policy (https://www.kent.ac.uk/is/regulations/library/kar-take-down-policy.html).
Uncontrolled keywords: Sociology
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
A General Works > AZ History of Scholarship. The Humanities
C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CB History of civilization
D History General and Old World > D History (General)
L Education > LA History of education
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
SWORD Depositor: SWORD Copy
Depositing User: SWORD Copy
Date Deposited: 29 Oct 2019 16:34 UTC
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2022 12:20 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/86207 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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