Volume 5 (Bösl)

Elsbeth Bösl: Policies of Normalization. On the history of disability policy in the Federal Republic of Germany

Bielefeld: transcript
2009, 408 p.
kart., 29,80 Euro
ISBN:
978-3-8376-1267-7

Contemporary history has hitherto paid little attention to “disability” as a category of analysis. However, this category offers a new perspective on the complex social and cultural contexts of West Germany. Elsbeth Bösl investigates disability policy in the Federal Republic of Germany. She asks how scientific and political discourses have constituted the contemporary category of “disability”. This historical analysis shows that until the mid-1970s West German disability policy primarily aimed at functional normalization and the creation of earning capacity and productivity.

Elsbeth Bösl (Dr. phil.) is an historian and works at the Munich Centre for the History of Science and Technology.

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