Brave New World of Work – through the Lens of Disability

Work and paid employment has become the central aspect of the social identity in our contemporary work societies. The assumed positive aspects of wage labour and employment on the individual well-being are hardly questioned. It is instead claimed that work offers the individual a sense of purposefulness, a possibility to contribute to the collective good and a daily structure. The exclusion from work and employment has played an important role in the struggle of the disability rights movement. All over the world, people with disabilities belong to the most marginalized group in the labor market. Celebrated as an international milestone in advancing and developing the recognition of disability as a human rights issue the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were adopted in 2006 .

This paper explores what role the disability movement and the disability rights framework plays in shaping and transforming our present work society. Based on the German context, it is outlined to what extent social policies have been implemented that address the exclusion of disabled people from the labor market. It is further shown to what extend the disability rights movement can contribute to a more equal and just world of work that not only benefits people with a disability but also other marginalized groups.