COMMUNITY CARE AND DISABILITY - THE LIMITS TO JUSTICE

This article considers the distinctive injustices experienced by disab led people and assesses recent institutional strategies which have sou ght to reduce these inequities and exclusions. A principle of 'enablin g justice' is proposed. This is to emphasize that the attainment of a just society which respects social difference is dependent upon the cr eation of human environments which satisfy the material and cultural n eeds of all who occupy them. The article reviews a critical area of st ate policy practice in capitalist societies - the establishment of com munity care networks for socially dependent persons. While the policy of community care cannot alone produce enabling environments, it may w ell lessen one dynamic of oppression which disabled people experience: their sociospatial exclusion in remote, often dehumanizing, instituti onal settings. However, an examination of the practice of community ca re in particular national contexts reveals several problems which may frustrate the realization of its policy aims, including opposition to care facilities from nearby residents and structural changes to social policy by neoliberal governments. The article considers these challen ges to community care using recent research which has examined the rel ationship between deinstitutionalization, urban regulation and social policy.