HJÆLP TIL SELVHJÆLP

On one hand Self-help is seen as social instrument providing disabled people assistance and emphasizing the citizen's motivation and commitment in compensating for their needs. But historically, on the other hand, Self-help in terms of care in a social repayment- and control system is interpreted from an intellectual clash between philanthropic and liberal thinking about the right to care, resulteded in a compensation policy to keep solidarity thoughts away. The purpose of the essay, based on this historical interpretation, is to investigate how actors in the Danish disability movement perceive the Self-help policy in relation to a self-understanding of their own citizenship role. This tension between politics and self-understanding shows how a utopian knowledge of the spiritual social culture of disability stands back, to emphasize a modelered form of knowledge, in order to maintain its independence as an intuitive disability organization. In the light of Mannheim's theory of "free-floating intelligentsia", a theoretical understanding of Self-help is given that highlight groups of intellectuals from a historical perspective of social, cultural and individual relationships in a social and political context. The theoretical frame is linked to an empirical study based on interviews and mails with the disability organizations Dansk Handicapforbund, Muskelsvindfonden, Landsforeningen for Evnesvages Vel and Spastikerforeningen, which all have different types of view on Self-help depending on their type of disability. Various views of disability are compared between the investigated organizations and an analysis is conducted how different types of knowledge affect the view of the members own disability and how the organizations structures their activities. The presentation of the theoretical and empirical material, highlights the social and cultural reasons for how we treat the disability in society. The thesis tries to highlight the potential of disabled people to a common intellectual knowledge, and how this spiritual social ability fades away in terms of political interests in consensus