This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people's movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In conclusion, the paper argues that neoliberalism confronts the disabled people's movement with two difficult tasks: to defend self-determination while criticising market-based individualism, and to defend the welfare state while criticising expert-based paternalism.

Personalisation is a key term in contemporary British social policy. This paper conceptualises personalisation as embodying two aspectsmarketisation and social justiceand explores their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare. Comparing the application and reception of personalisation in these two social policy domains, the paper identifies a tendency of marketisation to override social justice and highlights the negative implications of this tendency. The analysis is further contextualised by looking at the uses of personalisation to legitimise retrenchment of public provision in the context of post-2008 austerity. In conclusion, the paper calls for a critical engagement with the dominant interpretations of personalisation in order to prevent its reduction to a vehicle for unchecked marketisation of social policy.

This paper explores personal assistance -a practice considered crucial for supporting the independence and social inclusion of disabled people. The staring point of the analysis is the presumption that the significance of personal assistance goes well beyond welfare, touching upon existential-ontological issues. In order to uncover these issues, a phenomenological approach is used. The aim is to highlight the understanding of human being which is mediated by an internationally prominent model of personal assistance, to wit, the one promoted by the European Independent Living advocates, as described by Adolf Ratzka (2004a). It is argued that despite its liberal-individualist assertions the scheme described by Ratzka presupposes a distributed, relational understanding of human being. A case study of recent disability-related activism in Bulgaria is developed in order to further substantiate this claim. In conceptual terms, then, the paper adds a fresh perspective to the debates on individualist vs. collectivist approaches to disability equality. This perspective is informed by the phenomenological insights of Martin Heidegger (1962) and Maurice Merleau-Ponty (2002). In policy terms the paper argues for the necessity of promoting and supporting disabled people's self-organising, most importantly peer support and advocacy activities.

This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser's theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommodifying labour; culturally, by deconstructing self-sufficiency; and politically, by transnationalising democracy. The disability perspective reveals that decommodification of labour requires enhancement of disability support, deconstruction of self-sufficiency requires valorisation of disability-illuminated interdependence, and transnationalisation of democracy requires scrutiny of the transnational production of impairments. The article discusses each of these strategies in theoretical and practical terms by drawing on disability studies and Fraser's analyses. Points of interest • This article looks at social justice from the perspective of disability. • The article argues that a society is just only when it provides accessible and adequate disability support. • The article also argues that a society is just only when it does not stigmatise disabled people's 'dependency' but recognises that everyone is interdependent. • Finally, the article argues that a society is just only when it is possible for people impaired by global economy and violence to have a say in the policies that have affected them.

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