Disability and working-life citizenship

Abstract

This article explores disabled people’s stories of their working life experiences from a narrative point of view. We claim that the idea of full-time paid employment is the basis of full citizenship (working-life citizenship) and is a dominant narrative that affects disability policy. This study is theoretically informed by the model of narrative circulation (MNC), according to which people construct their stories in relation to culturally available and hegemonic narratives. We analysed work-related plot structures in disabled persons’ life stories, which were included in the life-story data corpus ‘Life of Disabled Persons in Finland 2013–2014’. By looking at these life stories in relation to the culturally available narratives, this study identifies four story types for disabled people’s working-life citizenship: 1) working-life citizenship as a hero story, 2) the tragedy of working-life citizenship, 3) the comedy of working-life citizenship and 4) working-life citizenship as tragic irony. The findings suggest that while paid employment is considered a major source of inclusion, the stories of persons with disabilities are not always heroic stories in which hero status is achieved. Such stories often remain untold and unheard. However, they need to be told and heard for the conditions of inclusion to be understood.