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Critical theory and disability studies: constructing the public sphere of disability issue

Critical theory and disability studies: constructing the public sphere of disability issue. Volha Verbilovich Valeria Markina (HSE, Moscow). “There are no invalid people in the USSR!” (V.Fefelov, 1986). disability issue construction. the identity of people with disability forming.

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Critical theory and disability studies: constructing the public sphere of disability issue

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  1. Critical theory and disability studies: constructing the public sphere of disability issue VolhaVerbilovichValeria Markina(HSE, Moscow)

  2. “There are no invalid people in the USSR!” (V.Fefelov, 1986)

  3. disability issue construction the identity of people with disability forming Collective action Mass media Public Sphere • Symbolic space and the process • Media representations as catalyzers of the discussion

  4. Research Questions To find out how does the disability issue appear in public discussion? • Who performs as the key actors of the discussion? • How Russian press represents people with Down syndrome? • What changes in the images could be found? • What are the effects? Is there a perspective of destigmatisation?

  5. Method and sample • “MoskovskiyKomsomolets” (popular) is an independent daily tabloid publishing sensations or provocative messages on Russian politics and society • “RossiyskayaGazeta” (official) is a daily socio-political newspaper. It has the status of official publisher of the governmental decisions_____________________________________ Totally - 174 articles, 2000-2012

  6. Trends in Representations *General dynamics of the number of articles about people with DS in the newspapers “MK” and “RG” (2000-2012)

  7. 1.People with Down syndrome (PWDS) are described as a deviance from mental health norms: • ‘disabled persons who suffer from a cruel disease’ (2010) • ‘incorrect results of screening test’ (2009) • ‘pathology ’ (2011) • ‘nature’s mistake’ (2010) • ‘genetic freaks’ (2004)

  8. “homosexualism is one of the genetic breaks similar to Down disease” (quote from “MoskovskiyKomsomolets”- popular newspaper, 2006)

  9. 2. People with Down syndrome are mostly depicted as ‘invalids’: • 60% articles in “MK” and 54% in “RG” • 154 mentions in “MK” and 131 in “RG”

  10. Most of the articles depict PWDS as children but not as adult persons: • the increase of such representations during the last five years • 77% in “RG” and 74% in “MK” “child-image”representations

  11. In the selected media people with Down syndrome are mostly deprived of their gender, sexuality, fertility • They almost never appear as individuals with vocational skills and as independent citizens of society • The increase of positive representations: “active”, “creative”, “special”, “sun-children”, “open-heart”

  12. The levels of the discussion • the official messages of the governmental and social policy institutes • the nature of mass-media interests to the topic of disability, representations of the excluded group • thecollective action from below, mobilization of the community of people with disabilities

  13. Selected cases The selected cases are the public “scandals” in mass media in 2009-2012 that articulate disability issues • 2009-2010 – popular Russian tabloid “Speed-Info” article about the children with Down Syndrome “Finish Them Off, So They Don't Suffer“ by A. Nikonov • Oct, 2012 – Radio Mayak case, dismissal of popular radio hosts Victoria Kolosovaand Alexey Veselkin, who ridiculed terminally ill children live, during a program on medicine and diseases (cystic fibrosis)

  14. CONCLUSION

  15. Public discussion on the issue of disability makes the community of people with disabilities more visible in Russia • But mass media as a mediator of the discussion still tends to preserve traditional prejudices and dichotomy “normal/abnormal” • Even though new positive representations (e.g. “alien creatures”, “sun children”) challenge the traditional medical discourse, they still contributeto the process of “Othering” and re-stigmatization, which distort the collective identity of people with disabilities

  16. 4. The emergence of the issue of disability outside the traditional headings and programs (“resonant” cases) facilitates the discussion and mobilizes the community of people with disabilitiesin the attempt to re-examine the boundaries of the “offensive” discourse

  17. Critical theory and disability studies: constructing the public sphere of disability issue VolhaVerbilovichValeria Markina(HSE, Moscow)

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