Rabe, Mirjam: Signum des Lebendigen

Ever since Germany ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, there has been a great deal of support in society for the goals of inclusion. At the same time, their implementation has frequently stagnated, particularly in the context of education and social participation. This work, located at the interface of philosophy and inclusion research, demonstrates that immaterial structures that stand in the way of the goals of inclusion can also be inherent in speaking and writing about inclusion that describes it affirmatively. Detailed linguistic analyses of very diverse texts reveal the interconnectedness of seemingly unconnected discourses and ultimately lead to fundamental questions that transcend disciplinary boundaries: How can the human be defined without reference to abilities or characteristics? How does thinking about inclusion and ‘people‘ in general change when vulnerability is recognized as a sign of all living things? What does it mean to consider the evidence of a concrete relational experience in theory building? The aim of the reflections is to name, open up and transform the dividing lines between ‘us‘ and ‘them‘, between ‘healthy‘ and ‘sick‘.