NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM AND DEBILITATION: A case study of disability, political economy & environment in Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how disability can be mobilised as an analytical category in a critique of neoliberal capitalism as it affects laborers, their bodies, and their socio-economic as well as ecological environment. In particular, I unpack how and why the body is rendered able and unable by political economy, and how the labor market instantiates hegemonic norms of ability. Taking the body as a point of departure in critiquing capitalism brings issues of inequality, poverty, and environmental destruction onto an intimate level of understanding. Political economy is landed on the flesh—and for this reason, it is a powerful launch point for political mobilisation. This thesis examines a case study pertaining to Lund’s Fountain House, a community recovery centre for people with mental disability in the South of Sweden. I take Sweden as a germane reference point in light of its escalating economic transition into more corporatist and neoliberal policy in the 21st century.