People with learning difficulties are being denied social justice in their everyday encounters with the labour market. Using concepts developed by Fraser, we argue that this denial of social justice arises from a combination of maldistribution of resources and misrecognition of people's equal humanity and their right to dignity and respect. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 16 people with mild learning difficulties on the margins of paid work, we show how maldistribution and misrecognition interact in complex ways to undermine the effectiveness of available support and to cause significant harm. We demonstrate how these effects are linked a wider failure of social justice, affecting disabled and non-disabled people. This wider failure is a consequence of government policy, the structure and regulation of the labour market and the design and delivery of social security.
AtkinsonD (2010) Narratives and people with learning disabilities. In: GrantGRamcharanPFlynnM (eds) Learning Disability a Life Cycle Approach. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill/Open University Press, pp. 7–18. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10413331 (accessed 15 March 2016).
4.
BaileyN (2016) Exclusionary employment in Britain’s broken labour market. Critical Social Policy36(1): 82–103.
CluleyVFysonRPilnickA (2020) Theorising disability: A practical and representative ontology of learning disability. Disability & Society35(2): 235–257.
7.
CobhamA (2020) The Uncounted. Cambridge: Polity.
8.
Conservatives (2017) The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto.
9.
CrombyJWillisMEH (2013) Nudging into subjectification: Governmentality and psychometrics. Critical Social Policy34(2): 241–259.
10.
CrouchC (2019) Will the Gig Economy Prevail?Cambridge: Polity Press.
11.
DoH (Department of Health) (2001) Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century. Norwich: TSO.
12.
DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) (2016) The lack of understanding of the issues by MPs who voted for the ESA cut. https://dpac.uk.net/research/ (accessed 24 February 2020).
DWP and DoH (2017) Improving Lives: The Work, Health and Disability White Paper. London: TSO.
18.
EmersonEGloverG (2012) The ‘transition cliff’ in the administrative prevalence of learning disabilities in England. Tizard Learning Disability Review17(3): 139–143.
19.
EmersonEStancliffeRHattonC, et al. (2021) The impact of disability on employment and financial security following the outbreak of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Journal of Public Health43(3): 472–478.
20.
FernandesS (2017) Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling. New York: Oxford University Press.
21.
FevreRLewisDRobinsonA, et al. (2012) Trouble at Work. London: Bloomsbury.
22.
FitzpatrickT (2011) Welfare Theory: An Introduction to the Theoretical Debates in Social Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
23.
FraserN (1989) Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Reprinted. Cambridge: Polity Press.
24.
FraserN (2001) Recognition without ethics?Theory, Culture & Society18(2–3): 21–42.
25.
FraserN (2003a) Social justice in the age of identity politics: Redistribution, recognition, participation. In: Redistribution or Recognition?London: Verso, pp. 7–109.
26.
FraserN (2003b) Distorted beyond all recognition. In: Redistribution or Recognition?London: Verso, pp. 198–236.
27.
FraserN (2012) On justice. New Left Review (74): 41–51.
28.
FrickerM (2009) Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
GroverC (2019) Violent proletarianisation: Social murder, the reserve army of labour and social security ‘austerity’ in Britain. Critical Social Policy39(3): 335–355.
31.
GroverCPiggottL (2005) Disabled people, the reserve army of labour and welfare reform. Disability & Society20(7): 705–717.
32.
GroverCPiggottL (2013) Disability and social (in)security: Emotions, contradictions of ‘inclusion’ and employment and support allowance. Social Policy and Society12(3): 369–380.
33.
HillsJ (2015) Good Times, Bad Times: The Welfare Myth of Them and Us. Bristol: Policy Press.
34.
HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) (2012) Social Justice: Transforming Lives. Cm 8314. London: HMSO.
35.
HollandP (2021) Will disabled workers be winners or losers in the post-COVID-19 labour market?Disabilities1(3): 161–173.
SchererNWisemanPWatsonN, et al. (2023) ‘Do they ever think about people like us?’: The experiences of people with learning disabilities in England and Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critical Social Policy43(3): 423–447.
51.
SimonsK (2000) Life on the Edge: The Experiences of People with a Learning Disability Who Do Not Use Specialist Services. Brighton: Pavilion Publishing.
52.
StanleyK (2005) The missing million: The challenges of employing more disabled people. In: RoulstoneABarnesC (eds) Working Futures? Disabled People, Policy and Social Inclusion. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 29–41.
TarloRFysonRRobertsS (2022) Ambivalence about disability: Why people with mild learning difficulties who are looking for employment may not identify as disabled. Disability & Society39(3): 548–570.
55.
TaylorN (2018) The return of character: Parallels between late-Victorian and twenty-first century discourses. Sociological Research Online23(2): 399–415.
56.
WalkerRHowardM (2000) The Making of a Welfare Class? Benefit Receipt in Britain. Bristol: Policy Press.
