Social justice: redistribution and recognition—a non-reductionist perspective on disability

The purpose of this article is to present some recent contributions to discussions on social justice and recognition in the context of disability research. Nancy Fraser's theory of redistribution and recognition, and her endeavour to include both a materialist and a cultural perspective in a theory of justice is examined. We also discuss Honneth's Hegelian-informed model of recognition. Critical realism, emphasizing a non-reductionist perspective, is briefly presented and, finally, we put forward some ideas on how to analyse and understand disability within such a framework.