Identity Forming Mechanisms in Public Sphere of Disability

Abstract

In the most recent period the Russian state has signed up to UN standards regarding the rights of the disabled. This entails programmes dedicated to assisting the disabled in entering mainstream society and playing a full role in public life. However, these lofty stated aims are not always reflected in the Russian media discourse on the disabled, where many negative attitudes to them remain reinforced by the presence of stereotypes and myths about the disabled. It remains a difficult challenge to discover a way to encourage the formulation of a positive image for disabled people in Russia. This article examines the concepts of the formation of the "identity of a person with disability" and the evolution of the "public sphere of disability". Social policy is defined in this respect as the institution that constructs the identity of people with disabilities, both on the level of state ideology and under the influence of collective action from below. The public sphere of disability is defined as a symbolic space and the place where processes of a specific disabled identity formation can be traced. This can be done mainly through analysis of rational-critical discussion regarding the disabled in the media. The concrete empirical examples used below show that, although the processes of identity forming are distorted by manipulative strategies of mass-media representations, the public sphere of disability is becoming more visible, promoting emancipatory interests and improving the positions of people with disabilities. Such interactions are having a clear affect on the self-identification of disabled people. With more clear roles in the public sphere, disabled people are gaining the chance to combat misguided views as to their role in society and in the process build their own solidarity and sense of common identity. The discourse of seeing the disabled as ‘useless’ is being overturned within this development into one that sees the disabled as a ‘valued’ part of the community.