Download or read book Critical Theory and Disability written by Teodor Mladenov and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-06-30 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critical Theory and Disability explores social and ontological issues encountered by present-day disabled people, applying ideas from disability studies and phenomenology. It focuses on disabling contexts in order to highlight and criticize the ontological assumptions of contemporary society, particularly those related to the meaning of human being. In empirical terms, the book explores critically social practices that undermine disabled people's well being, drawing on cases from contemporary Bulgaria. It includes in-depth examination of key mechanisms such as disability assessment, personal assistance (direct payments) and disability-based discrimination. On this basis, wider sociological and ontological claims are made concerning the body, identity, otherness, and exclusion.