Problematizing ‘productive citizenship’ within rehabilitation services: insights from three studies

Abstract

Background: The idea that everyone should strive to be a ‘productive citizen’ is a dominant societal discourse. However, critiques highlight that common definitions of productive citizenship focus on forms of participation and contribution that many people experiencing disability find difficult or impossible to realize, resulting in marginalization. Since rehabilitation services strive for enablement, social participation, and inclusiveness, it is important to question whether these things are achieved within the realities of practice. Our aim was to do this by examining specific examples of how ‘productive citizenship’ appears in rehabilitation services.

Methods: This article draws examples from three research studies in two countries to highlight instances in which narrow understandings of productive citizenship employed in rehabilitation services can have unintended marginalizing effects. Each example is presented as a vignette.

Discussion: The vignettes help us reflect on marginalization at the level of individual, community and society that arises from narrow interpretations of ‘productive citizenship’ in rehabilitation services. They also provide clues as to how productive citizenship could be envisaged differently. We argue that rehabilitation services, because of their influence at critical junctures in peoples’ lives, could be an effective site of social change regarding how productive citizenship is understood in wider society.

Implications for rehabilitation

• ‘Productive citizenship’, or the interpretation of which activities count as contributions to society, has a very restrictive definition within rehabilitation services.

• This restrictive definition is reflected in both policy and practices, and influences what counts as ‘legitimate’ rehabilitation and support, marginalizing options for a ‘good life’ that fall outside of it.

• Rehabilitation can be a site for social change; one way forward involves advocating for broader understandings of what counts as ‘productive citizenship’.

Keywords:

• Work-disability
• transition to adulthood
• productivity
• social change
• disability studies
• social inclusion

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the participants who gave their time and perspectives in the studies mentioned, and our study co-authors. We would also like to thank the four anonymous reviewers who provided valuable feedback and suggestions regarding how we communicate our message. Please see individual study references for funding and support information. No additional time or funding was sought for the combined analysis presented in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 All names are pseudonyms. We have intentionally elected not to give ‘diagnoses’ as these reflect medical understandings of impairments rather than social effects.