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Background: This paper presents the findings from a qualitative research project that explored what ten people with intellectual disabilities who receive care and support in a residential care facility deem valuable for living a good life and what the opportunity to manage resources for care and support themselves means to them. Method: With the use of photovoice, the 10 participants documented their care and support, and by extension, their own lives. We describe how the project was carried out and the facilitating and obstructing factors we encountered. Results: The collected images and related personal stories teach us about the central importance of significant others to the lives of the participants and their vital role as "necessary others" who nurture a multitude of possibilities. Conclusions: The increasing policy focus on independence and self-sufficiency is opposed to the vital role of relationships in the participants' view of a good life.

Summary: This article presents the results of a research project involving 10 people with intellectual disabilities concerning their idea of "a good life" in a residential care setting, within a context of personal budgets. We introduce the capability approach as a framework for focusing on the opportunities personal budgets offer for people with intellectual disabilities. We make use of qualitative interviews following a photovoice project in which people with intellectual disabilities documented their lives in order to research what they deem valuable and aspire to. Findings: In the analysis section, we present the elements which the participants identified as limiting and enhancing for imagining their future. From their stories, we learn that their aspirations are nourished by the encounters and social bonds that they engage in within a residential care context. The results make clear that the use of money offers opportunities to elaborate on what is already known and enables the realization of aspirations, while interactions with significant others more often than not encourage participants to explore and try out changes and thus further develop people's set of aspirations. Applications: In drawing the discussion to a close, we explore the implications these stories might have for understanding the role of aspirations in the practice of care and support for people with intellectual disabilities. The findings encourage us to think about a relational pedagogy and to address this in the practices of personal budgets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Personal budget schemes for people with disabilities are imbued with a conception of autonomous and rational individuals. The policy objective to enlarge people's opportunities conflicts with the presumed capacity of cognitive rationality. We present an analysis of 15 social work professionals' reflections on the practical implementation of three personal budget policies. Through a conceptualisation of 'a capable human being', we deepen our understanding of the social justice character of personal budget schemes. From this analysis we conclude that a strong formalisation of the application, assessment and allocation practice entails the risk that the relational aspect, which includes questions of meaningful care, is relegated to the background. 'Being capable' emerges as a condition for acquiring more options for meaningful care in practice, ahead of the intended contribution to people's capacities. The continuous attention is required for autonomy in interdependency to be recognised. Personal Budget Schemes for people with disabilities are systems that seek to achieve a socially just care system in which autonomy and control are central. Our analysis showed that people with disabilities who need any form of support during the process are granted access to a personal budget much less easily. Management of access in terms of 'the right provision of a budget' for 'the right person' has a greater weight in practice than the meaning of this access to personal budgets. This results in unequal opportunities for people in need of support in the process of getting a budget. The research recommends that involvement of social work professionals is of great importance for realising 'good care' for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nPoints of interestIn this article, we build upon a historical and critical analysis of de-institutionalisation strategies, representing a fundamental shift in disability policy and practice starting in the 1960’s. We state that de-institutionalisation has commonly been interpreted and translated as a vital ‘transition’ – referring to the dismantling of residential care and institutions – in rights discourse, policy, and (self-) advocacy. Whereas de-institutionalisation currently often interferes with neo-liberal welfare state reforms, we argue that the focus on ‘transition’ tends to ignore controlling and oppressive institutional care cultures that circulate in a variety of settings, whether ‘community based’ or not. In this article, we elaborate on Francois Tosquelles’ Institutional Pedagogy as a theoretical framework to radically ‘transform’ (residential) care in a wide variety of settings. Our analysis is based on qualitative interviews with residential care providers and (self-) advocacy groups, and offers a more in-depth insight in the complexities of de-institutionalisation as ‘transformation’.The common interpretation of de-institutionalisation states that large institutions for citizens with a disability need to be dismantled. It is claimed that institutions should be replaced by care and support in society to realise human rights for all.The article examines how closing down institutions hasn’t changed institutional ways of thinking, like oppressive and controlling ways of acting. It also has not facilitated inclusive relations. We state that de-institutionalisation should also focus on transforming the culture of residential institutions, no matter where this care and support are organised.The article uses a theory of Francois Tosquelles, Institutional Pedagogy, to rethink and transform institutions.The research builds on interviews with board members of care organisations that are changing, and with (self-) advocacy groups in Flanders.The article describes the need to transform residential institutions in a radical way. After all, residential care might still be the choice or last resort for citizens with a disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the conceptual frame of the capacity to aspire, this study explores how public administrative officers can make formal resources available and accessible for ger residents while recognizing the “capacity to aspire” among migrant ger residents in the Tahilt area of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We argue that building people’s capacity to aspire, consisting of (1) internal efforts to (2) consensus building, resulting in (3) practices of voice being heard, and (4) bottom up collaborations between public administrative officers and residents, represents a strategy toward alleviating difficulties encountered in the new urban space collectively. The ethnographic findings of this study illustrate inaccessibility of formal resources, spatiality and aspirations in an effort to incorporate residents’ voices for more collaboration. The paper calls for public administrative officers, such as public administrative officials, planners and social workers, to negotiate between policy objectives and ger residents’ agency, so that the capacity to aspire is nurtured for a collaborative culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]