När patienter ska blir medborgare - En diskursanalys av bemötandefrågan i svensk handikappolitik

Sammanfattning: Over the last decades the Swedish disability policy has changed from institutional to individual care. As a part of this transformation the government passed a National Disability Strategy in 2000. The aims of the strategy are: to improve the accessibility for persons with disabilities, to make the disability perspective a part of all sectors of society, and to improve the way persons with disabilities are treated. In this essay I examine how the transformation from patient to (equal) citizen is expected to take place. By analysing the understanding of the concept of treatment my purpose is to unveil on which level the change is located. The empirical material consists of three official documents, which state the overall direction of the Swedish disability policy. The method adopted is Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis. The theory I use is Nancy Fraser’s concept of affirmative and transformative remedies, and two different concepts of disability. The conclusion of my analysis shows that there are four different levels of treatment; historical, collective, political and individual. The emphasis of the documents is on the individual level, meaning the individuals’ values and ethics, whereas I argue that a comprehensive concept would be preferable.