The struggle for humanity : deinstitutionalization of the post-Yugoslav space in a historic perspective

Zaviršek, Darja (author)

While communist gender policies have been widely discussed, little is known about the history of disability in the post-Yugoslav space and its connection to the gender order, and how deinstitutionalization and current process of repatriarchalisation are linked. Yugoslavia’s socialist social policy provided a vast network of residential institutions and boarding schools for people with disabilities and stripped them of their individuality and political subjectivity, as they were run as industrial plants, providing employment opportunities for women in rural areas. Whereas under state socialism women were regimented into paid employment, today they are employed in isolated contexts of home care as foster carers, long-term carers, and personal assistants. The current process of deinstitutionalization tends not so much to ideas of independent living, but to family-centered care of people with disabilities. The comparative material shows that deinstitutionalization in the post-Yugoslav space has many similarities; it has not achieved major systemic transformations, is slow, and partly relies on (and at the same time produces) new trends of repatriarchalization of societies instead of independent living. Three areas are described in more detail: deinstitutionalization of children and adults; reinstitutionalization and transinstitutionalization; and personal assistance.

• Language: English
• Keywords: disabled people, deinstitutionalization, former Yugoslavia countries, historical perspective
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 273–283
• Numbering: Vol. 72, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169127
• UDC: 364(497)
• ISSN on article: 1075-8216
• DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2025.2493847
• COBISS.SI-ID: 235665155
• Publication date in RUL: 13.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Problems of post-communism
• Shortened title: Probl. post-communism
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 1075-8216
• COBISS.SI-ID: 833557

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: osebe z ovirami, deinstitucionalizacija, države nekdanje Jugoslavije, zgodovinski vidik

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0058
• Name: Socialno delo kot nosilec procesov družbenega vključevanja in socialne pravičnosti v Sloveniji - teoretske podlage, metodološke in metodične usmeritve in zgodovinski razvoj

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-2566
• Name: Socialno delo kot družbena naprava solidarnosti: izbrane problematike v zgodovinski in izkušenjski optiki