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Intrinsic and status dignity in social work with people living with learning disabilities: Rethinking self-sovereignty, vulnerability, and human worth

Abstract

In social work, dignity is usually considered as a person’s worth and what it demands. This can be drawn on to argue for the development of rights for people living with learning disabilities who experience exclusion and social disadvantage. However, normative ideas of flourishing can become a means of judging the worth of a life. When this happens, dignity becomes a status dependent on external criteria. Current approaches to dignity identify it with ideas of self-sovereignty. These disadvantages affect people living with learning disabilities, who are perceived as being vulnerable and lacking independence, reason, and autonomy. Drawing on Marion’s ideas of the Gaze, the object, and the saturated phenomenon, this article argues that status dignity needs to be distinguished from intrinsic dignity, and the dynamic between the two needs to be considered. This reveals how current approaches diminish worth and mask intrinsic dignity, a worth not dependent on attributes or circumstances. It illuminates the intimate tie among vulnerability, relational hope, and dignity. This facilitates a social work practice that witnesses the intrinsic dignity of people living with learning disabilities.

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Posted in: Journal Article Abstracts on 08/17/2026 | Link to this post on IFP |
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