Crafting the Revolution – A Study on Intellectual Disability and Well-Being in Socialist Cuba

Sammanfattning: This thesis focuses on the case of education and habilitation services in Cienfuegos, Havana, and Pinar del Rio to describe the well-being of persons with intellectual disability. The welfare of the target group is assessed through an ethnographic study of how actors from the societal sectors policy/service/household perceive that the well-being of individuals with intellectual disability is and can be achieved. These collected responses are analysed in this research study by applying the capability approach (CA). I found that how the intellectual disability categories mild/moderate/severe/profound are put into practice produces an unequal access to educational and habilitative services in Cuba. By applying the CA as a theoretical perspective, it was possible to discuss this unequal access in relation to the target groups’ possibility to achieve their well-being. Based on the CA framework it can be argued that the persons who do not have the ‘capability set’ necessary to fulfil the ‘beings’ (being educated) are impoverished in the Cuban society. Some of the actors from the societal sectors policy/service/household did present solutions that were thought to increase the target groups’ opportunities to welfare.