Abstract
In Re/imaginations of Disability in State Socialism, an interdisciplinary group of scholars examines how disability has been conceptualized and treated in socialist states throughout global history. Drawing on intersectional theories that set disability in conversation with other identity categories such as race, age, gender, and sexuality, this book offers a unique approach to this crucial issue.
How did the socialist visions of universal happiness and humanity embrace disability? How did societies that advocated all-encompassing visions of justice and, at the same time, made work a moral imperative, approach physical, mental and/or intellectual differences? How did disability arrest, transform, or tax the promises of a perfect society? And, finally, how did disability register and reveal the frustrations of such utopian visions and plans for building socialist societies? These are some of the questions raised by this book.