Self-presentation of Persons with Disabilities in Kazakhstan: General and Specific Traits

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/80-90

Abstract

The article examines disability as a social phenomenon on the example of Kazakhstan. Since such tasks are being solved on the basis of Kazakhstani material for the first time, the article studies only the self-representation of disabled people in Kazakhstan in comparison with Russia, where its specific features have already been identified by researchers. The empirical base of the study is in-depth interviews with residents of three cities of Kazakhstan, which were conducted by phone in April-May 2020 during the quarantine from the pandemic.

Having previously considered the socio-demographic characteristics of people with disabilities in Kazakhstan and Russia, the author compares self-representation of people with disabilities in the two countries, identified as those that are very similar to each other, and those that are noticeably different. The similarity is most likely explained by the common history of the creation of the system for assistance to people with disabilities and specific social atmosphere around them in all post-Soviet countries. The basis for the differences identified is the supposedly different role of ethnic and religious affiliation in the dominant discourse, in the sphere of politics and ideology in Kazakhstan.

For Citation: Savin, I.S. 2021. Self-presentation of Persons with Disabilities in Kazakhstan: General and Specific Traits. Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53).

References

• Endaltseva, A.S. 2018. Disability Studies i poiski “chistoi” modeli: pro shvy, ne-vozmozhnost’ i prostranstvo mezhdu Global’nym Yugom i Global’nym Severom [Disability Studies and Searches “Clear” Model: About Seams, Im-Possibility and Space between Clobal South and Clobal North]. In Obratnaia storona Luny, ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [Dark Side of the Moon, or What do We Know about Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices], edited by A.S. Kurlenkova and E.E. Nosenko-Shtein, 43–74. Moscow: MBA.
• Klepikova, A.A. 2018. “Nam teper’ nichego nel’zia, krome del’finov”: prichiny bolezni i effektivnost’ lecheniia v predstavleniiakh roditelei detei s osobennostiami razvitiia [“We Can’t Do Anything but Dolphins”: Causes of the Disease and Effectiveness of Treatmentin Representations of Parents of Children with Special Needs]. In Obratnaia storona Luny, ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [Dark Side of the Moon, or What do We Know about Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices], edited by A.S. Kurlenkova and E.E. Nosenko-Shtein, 355–380. Moscow: MBA.
• Lubiankina, E.N. 2018. Vzroslye deti: praktiki vzaimodeistviia s molodymi invalidami s mental’nymi narusheniiami [Older Children: Practices of Interactions with Young Persons with Mental Disabilities]. In Obratnaia storona Luny, ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [Dark Side of the Moon, or What do We Know about Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices], edited by A.S. Kurlenkova and E.E. Nosenko-Shtein, 296–322. Moscow: MBA.
• Nosenko-Shtein, E.E. 2017.Otnoshenie k invalidnosti sredi liudei s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostiami v sovremennoi Rossii (predvaritel’nye nabliudeniia) [Disability’ Attitude among Persons with Special Needs in Modern Russia (Preliminary Observations)]. In Chelovek i sotsium: ot konkurentnosti k tolerantnosti (problem sotsial’noi integratsii) [Man and Socium from Competitivenesses to Tolerance (Problems of Social Integration)], edited by M.L. Butovskaya and Yu.O. Fedenok, 190–203. Moscow: IEA RAN.
• Nosenko-Shtein, E.E. 2018. Antropologiia invalidnosti: problem i zadachi [Anthropology of Disability: Problems and Tasks]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 1: 5–11.
• Romanov, P., and E. Yarskaia-Smirnova. 2006. Politika invalidnosti: sotsial’noe grazhdanstvo invalidov v sovremennoi Rossii [Politics of Disability: Social Citizenship of Disabled Persons in Modern Russia]. Saratov: Nauchnaia kniga.