ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 2|24 pages

Soviet-style welfare

The disabled soldiers of the ‘Great Patriotic War'

chapter 4|30 pages

Heroes and spongers

The iconography of disability in Soviet posters and film

chapter 5|24 pages

Between disabling disorders and mundane nervousness

Representations of psychiatric patients and their distress in Soviet and post-Soviet Latvia

chapter 6|20 pages

Living with a disability in Hungary

Reconstructing the narratives of disabled students

chapter 7|24 pages

Breaking the silence

Disability and sexuality in contemporary Bulgaria

chapter 8|19 pages

Citizens or ‘dead souls'?

An anthropological perspective on disability and citizenship in post-Soviet Ukraine

chapter 9|20 pages

Those who do not work shall not eat!

A comparative perspective on the ideology of work within Eastern European disability discourses

chapter 12|25 pages

Lost in transition

Missed opportunities for reforming disabled children's education in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia