Full Description
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.
Contents
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
