Abstract
Abstract. In response to the economic crisis in 2009, the Hungarian government reduced the level of support for the employment of impaired people. The withdrawal of this state support has not only resulted in a massive wave of dismissals, but has also transformed some peripheral settlements into spaces of resistance. The research presented in this paper was conducted to understand the nature of political actions organised in Békés County (one of Hungary's disadvantaged regions) in order to support the social employment of impaired people. By analysing these political actions we have highlighted certain contradictions of applying the concept of identity politics in a post-socialist context, and the advantages of a combined, biosocial model. On the one hand, the outline of the political and economic situation helped us understand that the analysed social protests only resembled identity politics. In reality, they may even have contributed to the reproduction of ableism. On the other hand, by integrating individual experiences into the social model of disability we could also reveal that according to our impaired interviewees, it is not only their impairments and/or disabilities that render daily life difficult. Their firm call for changes in both economic and regional policy suggests that the deliberate and combined use of identity and class politics would be particularly important. Overall, our results suggest that it is essential for scholars in Hungary to engage more strongly in critical disability geography and to thus help the approach take root and develop further.
Highlights
In September 2009, the Hungarian government changed the regulations concerning the social employment1 of people with impairments2, and cut back drastically on state subsidies
If we agree that identity politics is “a concept that refers to social movements organised around the politicisation of particular cultural identities” (Pratt, 2000:367), political activities in Békés County can be interpreted as identity politics
The research presented here was conducted to understand the nature of political action organised in a disadvantaged region of Hungary in order to support the social employment of impaired people
Summary
Research conducted in various regions throughout the world supports the fact that impaired people as a social group are over-represented in poorer regions (Abberley, 1987; Davis, 2001). Under the prevailing statutory regulations, some impaired people were eligible for welfare benefits (e.g. state support, disability pension) providing that they agreed to being labelled as “disabled”. In the final decade of this era all employers were eventually granted state subsidies when employing impaired people. In the final decade of this era all employers were eventually granted state subsidies when employing impaired people6 This later somewhat modified practice survived even after 1989, it was not until a socialist-liberal government entered office in 2006 that major changes occurred. It was from this point on that local government-run social institutions that had previously provided means-tested day care for the elderly were allowed to provide employment for the impaired. Whilst the volume of state subsidy depended on the number of employees each institution employed, the operators of these institutions enjoyed a large degree of freedom over selecting their employees
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
