Citizenship Inclusion and Intellectual Disability

What happens when a group traditionally defined as lacking the necessary capacities of citizenship is targeted by government programs that have made ¿citizenship inclusion¿ their main goal? Combining theoretical perspectives of political philosophy, social theory, and disability studies, this book untangles the current state of Western intellectual disability politics following the replacement of state institutionalisation by independent and supported living, individual rights, and self-determination.

Taking its cue from Foucault¿s conception of ¿biopolitics¿, denoting the government of the individuals and the totality of the population, its overarching argument is that the ambiguous positioning of people with intellectual disabilities with respect to the ideals of citizenship results in a regime of government that simultaneously includes and excludes people of this group. On the one hand, its members are projected to become ideal-citizens via the cultivation of citizenship c