Middle States Geographer, 2004, 37:80-89 GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DISABILITY: A SOCIO-SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE MENTALLY DISABLED POPULATION IN RUSSIA

ABSTRACT: This paper introduces a geospatial model of disability, by integrating two previous non-geographic models of disability. Using this model alongside other methodologies of “disability geography, ” I strive to analyze the subjugating forces of the Russian disabled population. People of disability have long been viewed as embodiments of abnormality and rejection that had no place in the mercantilist, Soviet system. Though the fall of Communism and the materialization of democratic ideologies resulted in the relative liberation and empowerment of Russians with chronic and mental disabilities, these changes have hardly been thorough, as these groups continue to personify a marginalized role in the broader cultural, economic, and political arenas. By combining existing western thought and research in the field of disability geography with the situation in contemporary Russia, I strive to create a socio-spatial platform from which further analyses may flourish. Of particular interests are the constraining forces that continue to support disability ghettoes—mostly urban areas that continue to represent the historical centralization of developmentally, physically, and psychiatrically disabled Russians. This sector of Russian society has thus far been ignored in western geographical discourse, and I see a need to supplement existing non-geographical perspectives with spatial interpretations of this particular population