Paper Short Abstract:

The paper is devoted to the double-sided mimicry that the state and NGOs perform while taking care of orphans with disabilities in post-Soviet Russia. Focusing on the cases of mirroring, it aims to rethink the idea of a state-like institution and the very nature of belonging to the state.

Paper Abstract:

Reflecting on the state vs civil society dichotomy, many researchers have emphasized that civil society is not separable from the state and often produces the same powerful effects (e.g. Aretxaga 2003). The Russian example of NGOs that focused their work on helping orphans with disabilities only confirms it: due to economic and political crises, many of them decided to become "public service providers,” and started to receive state funding. However, this mimetic process is only part of the reality. Simultaneously, the Russian state has passed several laws in recent years that aimed to transform the system of orphanages and children’s homes for the disabled within the broader shift toward "traditional values" (An, Kulmala 2021). Unlike other authors who concurred that these changes did not tackle the fundamental aspects of the system (e.g. Shpakovskaya et al. 2019), I want to claim the opposite. The orphanages were compelled to change significantly, mimicking the family care and refurbished image of the institution, that was requested by the state but was unclear to the workers, and was difficult for them to agree upon. Using field materials that I collected in one NGO and one orphanage for children with intellectual disabilities and focusing on this double-sided mimicry, I propose to investigate the very idea of a state-like institution and the very nature of belonging to the state; and examine the make-believe activity (Navaro-Yashin 2007) that both of them perform contesting the right to take care of orphans with disabilities.