Paper short abstract:

The presentation aims at reconstructing the experience of vulnerable parenthood in the social and cultural context of contemporary Russia by means of analyzing the narratives of parents of children with developmental disabilities.

Paper long abstract:

Stories of parents of disabled children have often become the focus of attention for anthropologists and sociologists in the framework of constructivist and phenomenological approaches. These studies aim at reconstructing the interpretations of the disability labels, meanings individuals ascribe to their experiences shaped by certain socio-cultural settings, and notions of transformed self-hood and motherhood in relation to the child's disability [see, for example: Skinner et al. 1999; Goddard et al. 2000; Kausar et al 2003; Kelly 2005; Goodley, Tregaskis 2006; Hines et al. 2012; Lalvani 2015; Ginsburg, Rapp 2010; and, certainly, a well-known study by Gali Landsman, Landsman 2008].

As these studies have shown, parents of children with disabilities exist at a crossroad of discourses - one, a traditional discourse of pathology and sorrow, and the other, a newer and more critical discourse of acceptance and empowerment of people with disabilities. It is equally true for the present-day Russia context, the parent's narratives reflecting similar paradigmatic change.

Drawing upon the interviews (N=120) with parents of children and adults with disabilities living in big cities and small towns in Russia, my presentation will highlight their constructions of "self" transformed by the experience of being a mother or father of a disabled child.

In these constructions they base upon certain values, corresponding to their lifestyles, professional backgrounds, or broader cultural ideologies, including generational ones, and represent several modalities of thinking about the future: anxiety, hope, belief, certainty. The changing modalities illustrate the process of socialization into a disabled child's parent role.