Independent living in Central and Eastern Europe? The challenges of post-socialist deinstitutionalization

This chapter focuses on disabled people’s right to independent living – as stipulated in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – by discussing the reform of ‘deinstitutionalisation’ in present-day, postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that postsocialist deinstitutionalisation has often produced re-institutionalising outcomes that have defied the very aims and principles of the reform. To explain this, we consider the impact of inherited state socialist constructions of disability, neoliberal reforms following the demise of state socialism in 1989, and more recent processes EU integration. These general historical and social-theoretical considerations are supported by content analysis of disability policy documents and case studies of domestic mobilisations from Hungary and Bulgaria. In conclusion, we propose strategies for moving ahead with deinstitutionalisation reform in the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe so that the provisions of Article 19 could be effectively realised.