ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses possible connections between the life course, identity and political participation of disabled persons from a conceptual point of view. Identity formation is a dynamic process and is shaped by experience within a person's life course. The chapter examines how the life courses of persons with disabilities, their individual identities and their forms of political engagement are interrelated. It emphasises the relations between identity formation and political participation. A positive self-concept distinguishes the activists and normalisers from the fatalists, but both collective and individual activists are notable for following the social model of disability. The chapter focuses on 'experience with institutionalisation' and 'experience with the social environment' as two relevant aspects in disabled persons' life courses. External structures, operationalised by the categories 'experience with institutionalisation' and 'social environment', are interrelated to both internal structures, that is a person's identity, and individual practices.
