[Disability studies: social exclusion a research subject].

The article presents disability studies and elaborates, as their central feature, the distinction between societal disability and impairment which can be described on an individual and medical level. Disability studies define disability as socially caused exclusion. Participation and inclusion, seen as sociopolitical control and counter-terms, do, in fact, have a different content, depending on usage and context. Using the example of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), the respective understanding of disability is depicted. Against this background, the deficits of implementation of the UN CRPD, as criticized by the responsible UN Committee, are shown. Finally, a research agenda for disability studies is outlined, that deals with, among other things, implementation strategies and conflicts of interest in terms of inclusion, furthering widely unquestioned economic conditions and especially the negative impact of European austerity politics.