Staffan Bengtsson

Staffan Bengtsson is an assistant professor in Social work, and an associate professor in Disability research. He is also research manager at the School of health and welfare.

Staffan´s main interest is in Disability Research, where he also holds a PhD. His thesis has a historical and sociological approach regarding citizenship and disability. The purpose of the study was to outline some aspects of disability and Swedish society during the 19th century. This involved an analysis of the issue of integration and how politicians and educators motivated the establishment of compulsory schooling for children with disabilities. Social policies in the past are likely to be described in terms of control, repression and barriers. The study looks at disability from a more anthropological view, which implies the use of hermeneutics, seeking to identify the agent´s own understanding of a problem in order to learn more about how social categorization, citizenship and social recognition are integrated and how they change over time.

At the center of ongoing research stands disability as a societal phenomenon in relation to various theoretical perspectives and models, in which socio-cultural dimensions are accentuated in connection to religious and ideological value systems. This approach illustrates how people with disabilities are given different positions and functions that in turn captures some of the tension between inclusion and exclusion. Other research projects deals with labour market policies, and also patient narratives.