Disability in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

This book brings together new research by internationally recognised local and non-native scholars in a range of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It covers, historically, the origins of legacies that continue to affect well-being and policy in the region today, discusses disability in culture and society, highlighting the broader conditions that construct disability and in which disabled people must build their identities and well-being.

There are over thirty million disabled people in Russia and Eastern Europe, yet their voices are rarely heard in scholarly studies of life and well-being in the region. This book brings together new research by internationally recognised local and non-native scholars in a range of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It covers, historically, the origins of legacies that continue to affect well-being and policy in the region today. Discussions of disability in culture and society highlight the broader conditions in which disabled people must build their identities and well-being whilst in-depth biographical profiles outline what living with disabilities in the region is like. Chapters on policy interventions, including international influences, examine recent reforms and the difficulties of implementing inclusive, community-based care. The book will be of interest both to regional specialists, for whom well-being, equality and human rights are crucial concerns, and to scholars of disability and social policy internationally.

Autorentext

Michael Rasell is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Lincoln, UK.

Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova is a Professor in the Department of General Sociology at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Inhalt

Introduction: Conceptualising Disability in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union 1. Soviet Style Welfare: The disabled soldiers of the Great Patriotic War 2. Prosthetic Promise and Potemkin Limbs in Late-Stalinist Russia 3. Heroes and Spongers: The iconography of disability in Soviet poster and film 4. Between Disabling Disorders and Mundane Nervousness: Representations of psychiatric patients and their distress in soviet and post-soviet Latvia 5. Living with a Disability in Hungary: Reconstructing the narratives of disabled students 6. Citizens or 'Dead Souls?' An anthropological perspective on disability and citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine 7. Breaking the Silence: Disability and sexuality in contemporary Bulgaria 8. 'Those who do not Work Shall not Eat!' A comparative perspective on the ideology of work within Eastern European disability discourses 9. The Challenges of Operationalizing a Human Rights Approach to Disability in Central Asia 10. The Complex Role of Non-governmental Organisations in the Advancing the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria 11. Lost in Transition: Missed opportunities for reforming disabled children's education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia