ABSTRACT
This book is my attempt to offer a way beyond the impasse of British disability studies. While I value the achievements which have been won through the close alliance of disability politics and disability research, I believe that the weaknesses of the British approach now outweigh the benefits. Translation of ideas and ideologies from activism to academia has not been accompanied by a sufficient process of self-criticism, testing and empirical verification. The social model of disability which has successfully inspired generations of activists has largely failed to produce good empirical research, because it relies on an overly narrow and flawed conception of disability.
