Competing Institutional Logics and Paradoxical Universalism in Disabled People’s School-to-work Transitions: Comparing Switzerland and the United States

Disablement is a complex social phenomenon in contemporary societies, reflected in disability policies oriented towards contrasting paradigms. Fraught with ambivalence, disability raises dilemmas of classification and targeted supports. Paradoxical universalism emphasizes that to achieve universality requires recognizing individual dis/abilities and particularity contextual conditions and barriers that lead to disablement. Myriad aspects of educational and disability policies challenge both conceptualization and realization of universal policies, such as compulsory schooling, with widespread exclusion or segregation prevalent. Tensions between providing supports and ubiquitous stigmatization and separation that results are endemic—particularly evident during life course transitions that imply shifting memberships in institutions and organizations. Young adults’ transitions from school-to-work are fundamentally challenged by contrasting policies, institutional logics, and institutionalized organizations, particularly visible during inter-institutional transitions. Analyzing institutional logics facilitates understanding of the lack of inter-institutional coordination that hinders successful transitions for disabled youth. Examining such challenges in the United States and Switzerland, we compare two cases with liberal labor markets and federal governance structures but also with contrasting education, welfare and employment systems. Whereas lacking inter-institutional coordination negatively impacts disabled young adults in the US, Switzerland’s robust vocational education and training (VET) system, while not a panacea, does provide more coordinated support during transitions from school-to-work. These two countries provide relevant cases to examine ambivalence and contestation around the human right to inclusive education as well as the universality of the right (not) to work.