Disability luminary Mike Oliver is joined by Colin Barnes in this agenda-setting response to a capitalist society faced with globalisation, financial instability and lower public expenditure. A timely new edition which reignites the debate on the nature of disability and reasserts the political power of the academic field of disability studies.

In this long awaited new edition Oliver draws on his own experiences to paint a vivid picture of both the practical challenges of disablement and the theoretical understandings of disability. This approachable text is core reading for social work, nursing, health and social care and social science students taking modules in disability.

The fourth edition of this respected text offers thoroughly revised and updated material by a team of respected authors. The ever-evolving roles of the social worker, the public, and the disabled person in terms of policy formulation are explored against the contemporary backdrop of the social work framework within the UK.

This book redefines the issue of disability as a social rather than an individual problem and considers the implications of this view for the provision of services and for social work practice. It looks at the experience of people with disabilities in society, and the influence that their organisations have had on service provision. The authors discuss the implications of this in a variety of different settings and across the life cycle. The contributors to this book include disabled people, practitioners, professionals and academics.