System(at)ic exclusion & inclusion of people with disabilities?

Abstract

"The chances for comprehensive participation in modern societies are strongly connected to the individual health status. Avoiding inequality of opportunities based on health issues is a central concern of social policy. One of the most important aspects of participation and social inclusion is the integration into the labour market, since employment goes far beyond safeguarding subsistence. Vocational rehabilitation aims to integrate people with disabilities into the labour market. As other fields of social policy, vocational rehabilitation in Germany has been path-dependently grown. A major development has been the implementation of Social Code IX in 2001, which contained a fundamental change of perspective by replacing the paradigm of welfare for with participation of people with disabilities. Concerning vocational rehabilitation there is no systematic research on the inclusive effects regarding different societal fields. This theoretical paper uses the concept of Systems Theory (as established by Niklas Luhmann) to identify the societal part systems influencing inclusion and the course of vocational rehabilitation. Moreover, we apply a multilevel-approach to specify the analytical framework and to investigate the rehabilitative process - from the acceptance as a rehabilitant to the final integration into the labour market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Gruber, S., Titze, N. & Zapfel, S. (2011): System(at)ic exclusion & inclusion of people with disabilities? Vocational rehabilitation in the light of the systems theory. In: Universitat de València, Polibienestar (Hrsg.) (2011): Sustainability and transformation of European Social Policy : 9th annual ESPAnet conference. Valencia, 8-10 September 2011 (Annual ESPAnet conference, 09), p. 1-19.