Disability issue in the space of public discussion: “resonant case”

as the factor of community mobilization

Volha VerbilovichPhD studentSociology Department, HSESupervisor:Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova

Research Questions

• How the disability issue appears in the public discussion?

• What rhetoric dominates? • Who performs as key actors and what effects

of the discussion can be observed?

Research framework• Theoretical and methodological principles of social

constructivism (G.Blumer, M. Spector, J.Kitsuse)• Mass-media as public arenas -> social problems

are constructing and claiming to be important by particular actors of the discussion.

(S.Hilgartner, Ch. L. Bosk)• “Hate speech” (“язык враждебности») (J.Butler)

-> community mobilization (T. Shakespeare, N. Fraser) <- “performative action” in public sphere

(J. Habermas, H.Arendt, J.Butler)

Selected cases• The selected cases are the public scandals in mass

media in 2006-2012 that articulate disability issues in mass-media

Dec 14, 2006 – TV-show “Let them talk”, discussion of Russian pop-band “Tatu” music composition “Lyudi Invalidy” (European counterpart “Dangerous and Moving”)

2009-2010 – popular Russian tabloid “Speed-Info” article “Finish Them Off, So They Don't Suffer“ by A. Nikonov

Oct, 2012 – Radio Mayak case, dismissal of popular radio hosts Victoria Kolosova and Alexei Veselkin, who ridiculed terminally ill children live, during a program on medicine and diseases (cystic fibrosis).

Discussion: rhetoric, actors and effects

2006

2009-2010

2012

2008 - Russia signed the UN Convention

2012 - Russia ratified the UN Convention

• Russian mass-media are still preserving the manipulative manner of disability issues representation

• Journalists as “mediators” of the discussion still tend to follow traditional prejudices and rhetoric of “scare”, “pity”, “unwanted or useless citizens”

• The rational-critical potential of the discussion is low, initial actors of the discussion are in confrontation

Key findings

Key findings

• The state and power institutes appropriate to themselves the possibility of defining “hate speech” and the limits of acceptable discourse (J.Butler, M. Foucault) in diverse time and legislative contexts <- before and after UN Convention on People with Disability Rights ratification in Russia (2008-2012)

Key findings

• Although the processes of identity forming are distorted by manipulative strategies of mass-media representations of people with disabilities, the public sphere of disability is becoming more visible, promoting emancipatory interests and positions of people with disabilities