Rethinking “Transition” in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Through the Lens of Disability

ABSTRACT

The concept of disability can serve as a valuable lens through which a host of established subjects can be revisited in a new light. These include welfare and “welfare dependency,” unemployment, gender relations, social movements, and grassroots activities, the impact of international norms such as human rights and their application in local contexts, and the impact of neoliberal reforms. Despite this potential, disability, unlike the concepts of class, “race,” sexuality, and ethnicity, has yet to make inroads into the field of postsocialist studies. It is precisely this lacuna which our special issue seeks to address.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Its importance and relevance are demonstrated by the consideration that while the disability community represents $8 trillion of global spending power (Return on Disability Group 2016), the exclusion of disabled people costs countries up to 7 percent of their annual GDP (ILO 2015).

2. Another terminological point concerns the term “postsocialism”. Talking about “state socialism” instead of “communism” does justice to both ideology and reality of the time. Although the ruling parties called themselves “communist, they did not consider the societies they governed to be “communist,” neither they governed in a “communist” way. As pointed out by Daskalova (2011, 330), “the term ‘state socialism’ is more appropriate than ‘communism’ …, since communism was articulated by the former elites of state socialism as the ideal society of the future which they promised to the ‘people’ but which was never achieved.” Accordingly, we prefer to talk about “postsocialism” instead of “postcommunism.”