‘No Man’s Land’: Disability, Rehabilitation, Welfare Policy and the British Ex-Service Migrant in Australia, 1918–39

Robinson, MJ ORCID: 0000-0001-6835-0603 (2021) ‘No Man’s Land’: Disability, Rehabilitation, Welfare Policy and the British Ex-Service Migrant in Australia, 1918–39. Social History of Medicine, 34 (1). pp. 214-236.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkz063

Abstract

An inter-war analysis of the British and Australian departments charged with compensating disabled First World War veterans and the British ex-service migrant in inter-war Australia illustrates how nation-states have failed to unify welfare and disability rehabilitation. Contemporary welfare states continue to codify and establish categories of prioritisation egarding communities with disabilities for public finance administered by national government departments. This binational case study identifies reoccurring type one and type two error problems: policy can deny egitimate claims for state assistance while also validating and financing potentially illegitimate claims. This underlines the factors that dictate which error type is ruled to be the least significant and the impact the resulting model has on individual claimants. This study reinforces the thesis of David Gerber who stresses the ahistorical centrality of ‘biopolitics’ or the relationship between societal and political perceptions of a conflict on state policy, in the treatment of veteran communities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	disability, welfare, rehabilitation, veterans, public health, British Empire
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	15 Aug 2019 16:02
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 00:29
DOI:	10.1093/shm/hkz063
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkz063
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3051872