In(ter)dependent lives

Abstract

This article suggests it is important to confront independence, one of the key concepts of our time, with empirical analysis of how this is actually practised by individuals in their everyday life. Within social politics, the cash-for-care system is seen as a notable tool of independence because people receive cash instead of care in order to employ their own care workers. Using a cross-national case study of cash-for-care for disabled people in the UK and Norway the present article points at two different social political interpretations of independence and suggests that neither of them lead to independence in terms of control and that assistance without care is impossible. A narrative analysis rather reveals that the cultural narrative about independence can be in disharmony with disabled people's personal narratives about limited control and care and that this should lead to a replacement of the idea of independence with the praxis of interdependence.

Keywords:

• independence
• interdependence
• cash-for-care
• disabled people

Notes

1. A legislative amendment is currently being prepared by the Norwegian government and it is likely that in the future this decision will be transferred to the disabled person.