ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores and criticises the ways in which the twin factors of state socialist legacy and postsocialist neoliberalisation have generated and sustained mechanisms and patterns such as those just described that have hindered disabled people's participation in social life in the postsocialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It makes recourse to various sources detailing the situation in the former state socialist and current capitalist societies in the region. State socialism heavily medicalised and productivised disability and this is a central element of its legacy, as far as disabled people are concerned. The book also explores the restrictions on disabled people's parity of participation conditioned by the state socialist legacy and postsocialist neoliberalisation in each of Fraser's three dimensions of justice – economic redistribution, cultural recognition and political representation.
