The politics of self-advocacy and people with learning difficulties

Abstract

English This article draws on an ESRC-funded study of self-advocacy to provide a critical commentary on the politics of self-advocacy for people with learning difficulties. The article argues that in considering ‘self-advocacy’ as a policy option through which the citizenship of people with learning difficulties can be asserted, it is necessary to start from an understanding of how ‘learning difficulties’ are themselves socially constructed as a label for managing and controlling a ‘troublesome’ minority. For this reason, significant difficulties are encountered by people with learning difficulties in their attempts to advance their civil rights through self-advocacy. This is particularly so where self-advocacy is represented as part of a policy agenda for ‘empowerment’ within service settings.

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