Active citizenship for persons with psychosocial disabilities in Sweden

Abstract As it is the case in many European countries, psychosocial disabilities have become an important concern in Sweden. Persons with psychosocial disabilities’ experiences of various societal domains such as school, work, family life, leisure activities and contact with welfare agencies need a complex analysis which takes into account both personal and contextual factors. This article draws on 15 interviews with informants with psychosocial disabilities and discusses their experiences and the difficulties that they met during their lives. These experiences are conceptualised with the framework of “active citizenship” developed by Hvinden et al. (2016), which distinguishes three core dimensions of active citizenship: security, influence and autonomy. The empirically grounded article discusses the opportunities and barriers that encourage or hamper persons with psychosocial disabilities to be active citizens in the Swedish welfare state and underlines some of the main challenges that stand in the way of their “full and effective participation in society” (CRPD, article 1).