Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in this book. The book examines disability as a socially constitutive collective class and identity with the emergence of the postmodern, neoliberal nation state. It builds on spatial–temporal, socio-relational arguments to identify disability and disablement as socially produced and reproduced oppression. The book explores those mechanisms that are integral to the consensus-building project occurring as neoliberalism grows in power and the strategies drawn upon to build popular support for the reconstitution of 'disability' under the neoliberal workfare state. It reveals the significance of the disability movement and its collective efforts in its struggle to realise differing avenues to further disability justice claims. The book describes the complexity of social relations across the disability policymaking fields and the power relations embedded therein. It provides an in-depth historical analysis of disability as an evolving policy classification regime within the Australian state.