Needed Subjects: An Ethnography of the Formation of the Inclusion Complex in Russia
| dc.contributor.advisor | Faubion, James | |
| dc.creator | Borodina, Svetlana | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-04-27T21:13:18Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-05-01T05:01:12Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2020-05 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-04-24 | |
| dc.date.submitted | May 2020 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2020-04-27T21:13:19Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation tackles the question “What is it that sustains the social inclusion of people with disabilities?” in the context of post-socialist Russia, a country that in the past decade has undertaken a shift from segregationist disability policies toward a cultural and political orientation of inclusivity. Through ratification of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities, Russia committed to adjusting their legislative, political and economic protocols as well as cultural practices according to the principle of inclusion. Despite inclusion’s international acclaim, little regulation exists for making it a functional organizational principle beyond an ideological commitment. Based on 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork, my dissertation examines attempts to produce and promote a sustainable culture of inclusivity among disabled and nondisabled individuals in Russia. It critically interrogates inclusion’s universalized moral value and documents the social effects produced by different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of inclusion, which populate the contemporary Russian landscape of governmental and civic initiatives of social betterment. The study is situated at the intersection of cultural and medical anthropology, critical disability studies, and political anthropology, as it scrutinizes the emergence of a new citizenship regime that mandates responsible and collective participation by both the disabled and the abled in the building of the world of inclusion. My interlocutors, the largest part of whom are blind, pose a post-socialist inflection of inclusion that challenges liberal ideals of independence, liberty, and obligation to the self, others, and the state. This inflection of inclusion offers insight into the strategies and tactics of coalition building between the post-socialist state, businesses, and civic initiatives, aiming at social reformation and redress. Finally, my scholarship constitutes an unprecedented account of how blind citizens articulate social critique and reformation. | |
| dc.embargo.terms | 2021-05-01 | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Borodina, Svetlana. "Needed Subjects: An Ethnography of the Formation of the Inclusion Complex in Russia." (2020) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108432">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108432</a>. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108432 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder. | |
| dc.subject | inclusion | |
| dc.subject | disability | |
| dc.subject | blindness | |
| dc.subject | Russia | |
| dc.title | Needed Subjects: An Ethnography of the Formation of the Inclusion Complex in Russia | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | Text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Social Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Rice University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.major | Cultural Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy |
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