Teodor Mladenov
Biographic Data
| ID | 263656 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Teodor Mladenov |
| GIVEN NAMES | Teodor |
| FAMILY NAME | Mladenov |
| SIGNATURE | MLADENOV T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dundee |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0623-7952 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 144 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Prefiguration and the independent living movement
This article facilitates a productive encounter between social movement studies and the Independent Living Movement (ILM), a collective mobilisation that advances disabled people’s self-determination. More specifically, we analyse the ILM from the perspective of prefiguration, understood as the activist practice of collectively realising a desired future in the present. This helps illuminate pivotal aspects of the ILM that remain hidden in more i…
The source code of social theorising
Purpose The purpose of this article is to propose a metatheoretical framework for understanding the practice of social theorising. I argue that the latter fundamentally consists of engaging with binary distinctions, concepts and typologies. Design/methodology/approach I combine pragmatic, systems-theoretical and critical-theoretical perspectives to discuss each of these three types of social-theoretical activity, paying particular attention to th…
AI and disabled people’s independent living
Artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly reshapes social participation, yet its implications for disabled people’s opportunities to live independently and be included in the community—as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities—remain underexplored. This article addresses the gap by integrating sociotechnical analysis with key concepts from disability studies, including the social model of disability…
Success and its discontents
This article highlights a paradox. On the one hand, the Independent Living (IL) movement has achieved a resounding success through the widespread ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Yet on the other hand, the mainstreaming of the CRPD has witnessed proliferating misappropriations of IL. This has forced IL activists to fight on two fronts, continuing the older fight for implementing IL p…
Peer support and the collective side of independent living
This article explores the collective side of independent living–a social movement, policy framework, and practical arrangements emerging from disabled people’s struggles for self-determination. The collective side of independent living is revealed by discussing the role of peer support for independent living as political and everyday practice. The first part of the article considers the meaning and essential features of peer support, its importan…
Epistemic historising and the pillars of independent living
This article explores epistemic injustices faced by disabled people, and particularly by the members of the Independent Living (IL) movement – a new social movement that emerged in the late 1960s to help disabled people gain control over their lives by organising disability support in ways that enhance self-determination. It is argued that although the IL movement was successful in informing international human rights legislation, as epitomised b…
Rethinking “Transition” in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Through the Lens of Disability
Published online: 26 April 2024
The purpose of life is a life of purpose
The purpose of the Independent Living Fund Scotland is to empower disabled people to control their own support systems. Established as a ‘closed’ fund in 2015, it has been threatened with eventual closure through attrition. In response, a campaign was organised to open the fund, bolstered by two ‘social return on investment’ evaluations. As a result, the fund was opened in April 2024. This article discusses the background of the Independent Livin…
Decolonising Disability in Contexts of Illiberalism and Social Abandonment
This paper explores the relevance of the decolonial approach for analyses of postsocialist disablement, taking as its test case the analytical tool of the 'postsocialist disability matrix'. The question we pose is how much decolonial critique can the analyses of postsocialist disablement embrace without becoming reactionary amidst growing illiberalism and social abandonment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? We provide an overview of postsocial…
Epistemic injustice as a bridge between medical sociology and disability studies
This paper explores the potential of the perspective of epistemic injustice to reconcile medical sociology's attention to the micro level of experience and interpersonal exchange, and disability studies' focus on the macro level of oppressive structures. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the concept of epistemic injustice and its key instances-testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory injustice. We also consider previous appl…
The global Covid-19 Disability Rights Monitor
The global COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor (COVID-19 DRM) has revealed major injustices suffered by disabled people around the world during the first stage of the pandemic, including enhanced institutionalisation, breakdown of essential services in the community, multiplication of intersectional harms, and denial of access to healthcare. In this paper, we present an overview of the COVID-19 DRM and its findings. We also offer a disability stud…
Social vulnerability and the impact of policy responses to Covid‐19 on disabled people
In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of the policy responses to COVID‐19 on disabled people. These responses have overwhelmingly focused on individual vulnerability, which has been used as a justification for removing or restricting rights. This suggests the need to shift the attention towards the social determinants of disabled people's vulnerability. We do this by bringing literature on social vulnerabil…
Performativity and the Disability Category
This article explores critically the relationship between capitalist performativity and the disability category. It draws on Jean-François Lyotard's analysis of postmodernity to define 'performativity' as the principle of performance enhancement governing the world of contemporary techno-capitalism. The analysis then traces the historical development of the disability category in the 20th and 21st centuries and explains its complex interlinking w…
Independent living in Central and Eastern Europe? The challenges of post-socialist deinstitutionalization
This chapter focuses on the right of disabled people to independent living – as stipulated in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – by discussing the reform of ‘deinstitutionalization’ in present-day, post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that post-socialist deinstitutionalization has often produced re-institutionalizing outcomes that have defied the very aims and principles of the reform. To e…
Critique of deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe
In this paper, we explore critically deinstitutionalisation reform, focusing specifically on the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We argue that deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist CEE has generated re-institutionalising outcomes, including renovation of existing institutions and/or creation of new, smaller settings that have nevertheless reproduced key features of institutional life. To explain these trends, we first …
What is good personal assistance made of? Results of a European survey
This article presents the results of a survey on personal assistance (PA) for disabled people, conducted among PA users and members of the independent living movement in Europe. The survey was developed and implemented in the spirit of emancipatory disability research, and was informed by the social model of disability and the independent living philosophy. Participants were asked to assess a series of characteristics of PA in terms of their impa…
Disability and Postsocialism
In the decades following the collapse of state socialism at the end of 1980s, disabled people in Central and Eastern Europe endured economic marginalisation, cultural devaluation and political disempowerment. Some of the mechanisms producing these injustices were inherited from state socialism, while others emerged with postsocialist neoliberalisation. State socialism promised social security guaranteed by the public, and postsocialist neoliberal…
From State Socialist to Neoliberal Productivism
This article criticizes the negative impact of productivism on disabled people of working age in the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe. Productivism is conceptualized as a mechanism that generates cultural and material invalidation of those considered to be unable to work. The analysis begins by outlining some political-economic features of state socialism that underpinned its productivism, emphasizing commodification of labor. I…
What Justice, What Autonomy? The Ethical Constraints upon Personalisation
This article considers the ethical dimensions of attempts to ‘personalise’ health and social care services in the UK. Personalisation is identified as closely related to efforts to introduce elements of neoliberal marketisation into public service provision, particularly through the introduction of consumer choice for services users. We consider two areas of ethical concern surrounding personalisation: its contribution to social justice agendas a…
Governing through personal assistance
This paper brings together concepts from the domains of disability studies, governmentality studies and Actor-Network Theory in order to develop a micro-level analysis of a scheme for the provision of personal assistance for disabled people, currently administered by the Sofia Municipality in Bulgaria. The workfare conditionality embedded in the scheme’s needs assessment procedure is highlighted and subjected to critique. The micro-level analysis…
Postsocialist disability matrix
This paper explores injustices experienced by disabled people in the postsocialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe . Drawing on Nancy Fraser ’s theory of social justice , the analysis proposes a ‘matrix’ that reveals the negative impact of two factors – state socialist legacy and postsocialist neoliberalization – on disabled people’s parity of participation in three dimensions of justice – economic redistribution, cultural recognition, an…
Disability and social justice
This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommod…
Neoliberalism, postsocialism, disability
This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In c…
Personalisation in disability services and healthcare
Personalisation is a key term in contemporary British social policy. This article conceptualises personalisation as embodying two aspects – marketisation and social justice – and explores their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare. Comparing the application and reception of personalisation in these two social policy domains, the article identifies a tendency of marketisation to override …
EU Social Inclusion Policies in Post-Socialist Countries
This book explores experiences with inclusion policy implementation in seven different post-socialist EU countries. It focuses particularly on two groups of people in constant danger of social exclusion: People with Roma background and people with disabilities.
Neoliberalism, postsocialism, disability
This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In c…
Epistemic injustice as a bridge between medical sociology and disability studies
This paper explores the potential of the perspective of epistemic injustice to reconcile medical sociology's attention to the micro level of experience and interpersonal exchange, and disability studies' focus on the macro level of oppressive structures. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the concept of epistemic injustice and its key instances-testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory injustice. We also consider previous appl…
Disability and social justice
This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommod…
Personalisation in disability services and healthcare
Personalisation is a key term in contemporary British social policy. This article conceptualises personalisation as embodying two aspects – marketisation and social justice – and explores their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare. Comparing the application and reception of personalisation in these two social policy domains, the article identifies a tendency of marketisation to override …
Critique of deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe
In this paper, we explore critically deinstitutionalisation reform, focusing specifically on the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We argue that deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist CEE has generated re-institutionalising outcomes, including renovation of existing institutions and/or creation of new, smaller settings that have nevertheless reproduced key features of institutional life. To explain these trends, we first …
Social vulnerability and the impact of policy responses to Covid‐19 on disabled people
In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of the policy responses to COVID‐19 on disabled people. These responses have overwhelmingly focused on individual vulnerability, which has been used as a justification for removing or restricting rights. This suggests the need to shift the attention towards the social determinants of disabled people's vulnerability. We do this by bringing literature on social vulnerabil…
The global Covid-19 Disability Rights Monitor
The global COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor (COVID-19 DRM) has revealed major injustices suffered by disabled people around the world during the first stage of the pandemic, including enhanced institutionalisation, breakdown of essential services in the community, multiplication of intersectional harms, and denial of access to healthcare. In this paper, we present an overview of the COVID-19 DRM and its findings. We also offer a disability stud…
Institutional woes of participation
This paper presents a critical study of the participation of Bulgarian disabled people’s organisations in the policy-making process on a national level. It describes how the ‘representatives’ of disabled Bulgarians become depoliticised and even depersonalised when their participation becomes institutionalised through the National Council on Integration of People with Disabilities. It is argued that such an instance of ‘participation’ actually sus…
Deficient bodies and inefficient resources
This paper analyses disability assessment, conceived as a dominant way of assigning disability status within the modern welfare state. It explores the procedure and outcome of the assessment in their intrinsic relation to defining humanness by utilising an approach which is novel for disability studies – a Heideggerian, existential-phenomenological critique of the modern reduction of human beings to objects and/or resources. This critical philoso…
What is good personal assistance made of? Results of a European survey
This article presents the results of a survey on personal assistance (PA) for disabled people, conducted among PA users and members of the independent living movement in Europe. The survey was developed and implemented in the spirit of emancipatory disability research, and was informed by the social model of disability and the independent living philosophy. Participants were asked to assess a series of characteristics of PA in terms of their impa…
From State Socialist to Neoliberal Productivism
This article criticizes the negative impact of productivism on disabled people of working age in the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe. Productivism is conceptualized as a mechanism that generates cultural and material invalidation of those considered to be unable to work. The analysis begins by outlining some political-economic features of state socialism that underpinned its productivism, emphasizing commodification of labor. I…
Personal assistance for disabled people and the understanding of human being
This paper explores personal assistance – a practice considered crucial for supporting the independence and social inclusion of disabled people. The starting point of the analysis is the presumption that the significance of personal assistance goes well beyond welfare, touching upon existential-ontological issues. In order to uncover these issues, a phenomenological approach is used. The aim is to highlight the understanding of human being which …
What Justice, What Autonomy? The Ethical Constraints upon Personalisation
This article considers the ethical dimensions of attempts to ‘personalise’ health and social care services in the UK. Personalisation is identified as closely related to efforts to introduce elements of neoliberal marketisation into public service provision, particularly through the introduction of consumer choice for services users. We consider two areas of ethical concern surrounding personalisation: its contribution to social justice agendas a…
Postsocialist disability matrix
This paper explores injustices experienced by disabled people in the postsocialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe . Drawing on Nancy Fraser ’s theory of social justice , the analysis proposes a ‘matrix’ that reveals the negative impact of two factors – state socialist legacy and postsocialist neoliberalization – on disabled people’s parity of participation in three dimensions of justice – economic redistribution, cultural recognition, an…
Peer support and the collective side of independent living
This article explores the collective side of independent living–a social movement, policy framework, and practical arrangements emerging from disabled people’s struggles for self-determination. The collective side of independent living is revealed by discussing the role of peer support for independent living as political and everyday practice. The first part of the article considers the meaning and essential features of peer support, its importan…
Decolonising Disability in Contexts of Illiberalism and Social Abandonment
This paper explores the relevance of the decolonial approach for analyses of postsocialist disablement, taking as its test case the analytical tool of the 'postsocialist disability matrix'. The question we pose is how much decolonial critique can the analyses of postsocialist disablement embrace without becoming reactionary amidst growing illiberalism and social abandonment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? We provide an overview of postsocial…
Governing through personal assistance
This paper brings together concepts from the domains of disability studies, governmentality studies and Actor-Network Theory in order to develop a micro-level analysis of a scheme for the provision of personal assistance for disabled people, currently administered by the Sofia Municipality in Bulgaria. The workfare conditionality embedded in the scheme’s needs assessment procedure is highlighted and subjected to critique. The micro-level analysis…
Institutional woes of participation
This paper presents a critical study of the participation of Bulgarian disabled people’s organisations in the policy-making process on a national level. It describes how the ‘representatives’ of disabled Bulgarians become depoliticised and even depersonalised when their participation becomes institutionalised through the National Council on Integration of People with Disabilities. It is argued that such an instance of ‘participation’ actually sus…
Deficient bodies and inefficient resources
This paper analyses disability assessment, conceived as a dominant way of assigning disability status within the modern welfare state. It explores the procedure and outcome of the assessment in their intrinsic relation to defining humanness by utilising an approach which is novel for disability studies – a Heideggerian, existential-phenomenological critique of the modern reduction of human beings to objects and/or resources. This critical philoso…
Like Everest
This paper uses phenomenology to explore recent representations of inaccessible architectural environment featured on major Bulgarian television channels. It is argued that by exposing the environmental restrictions faced by disabled people in their everyday activities, Bulgarian media unwittingly engage in an operation described by formalist literary critics as ‘defamiliarization’. As a result, familiar elements of the everyday, lived world are …
Personal assistance for disabled people and the understanding of human being
This paper explores personal assistance – a practice considered crucial for supporting the independence and social inclusion of disabled people. The starting point of the analysis is the presumption that the significance of personal assistance goes well beyond welfare, touching upon existential-ontological issues. In order to uncover these issues, a phenomenological approach is used. The aim is to highlight the understanding of human being which …
Neoliberalism, postsocialism, disability
This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In c…
Personalisation in disability services and healthcare
Personalisation is a key term in contemporary British social policy. This article conceptualises personalisation as embodying two aspects – marketisation and social justice – and explores their interaction in discourses and practices of personalisation in disability services and healthcare. Comparing the application and reception of personalisation in these two social policy domains, the article identifies a tendency of marketisation to override …
What Justice, What Autonomy? The Ethical Constraints upon Personalisation
This article considers the ethical dimensions of attempts to ‘personalise’ health and social care services in the UK. Personalisation is identified as closely related to efforts to introduce elements of neoliberal marketisation into public service provision, particularly through the introduction of consumer choice for services users. We consider two areas of ethical concern surrounding personalisation: its contribution to social justice agendas a…
Governing through personal assistance
This paper brings together concepts from the domains of disability studies, governmentality studies and Actor-Network Theory in order to develop a micro-level analysis of a scheme for the provision of personal assistance for disabled people, currently administered by the Sofia Municipality in Bulgaria. The workfare conditionality embedded in the scheme’s needs assessment procedure is highlighted and subjected to critique. The micro-level analysis…
Postsocialist disability matrix
This paper explores injustices experienced by disabled people in the postsocialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe . Drawing on Nancy Fraser ’s theory of social justice , the analysis proposes a ‘matrix’ that reveals the negative impact of two factors – state socialist legacy and postsocialist neoliberalization – on disabled people’s parity of participation in three dimensions of justice – economic redistribution, cultural recognition, an…
Disability and social justice
This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommod…
Disability and Postsocialism
In the decades following the collapse of state socialism at the end of 1980s, disabled people in Central and Eastern Europe endured economic marginalisation, cultural devaluation and political disempowerment. Some of the mechanisms producing these injustices were inherited from state socialism, while others emerged with postsocialist neoliberalisation. State socialism promised social security guaranteed by the public, and postsocialist neoliberal…
From State Socialist to Neoliberal Productivism
This article criticizes the negative impact of productivism on disabled people of working age in the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe. Productivism is conceptualized as a mechanism that generates cultural and material invalidation of those considered to be unable to work. The analysis begins by outlining some political-economic features of state socialism that underpinned its productivism, emphasizing commodification of labor. I…
Independent living in Central and Eastern Europe? The challenges of post-socialist deinstitutionalization
This chapter focuses on the right of disabled people to independent living – as stipulated in Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – by discussing the reform of ‘deinstitutionalization’ in present-day, post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. We argue that post-socialist deinstitutionalization has often produced re-institutionalizing outcomes that have defied the very aims and principles of the reform. To e…
Critique of deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe
In this paper, we explore critically deinstitutionalisation reform, focusing specifically on the postsocialist region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We argue that deinstitutionalisation in postsocialist CEE has generated re-institutionalising outcomes, including renovation of existing institutions and/or creation of new, smaller settings that have nevertheless reproduced key features of institutional life. To explain these trends, we first …
What is good personal assistance made of? Results of a European survey
This article presents the results of a survey on personal assistance (PA) for disabled people, conducted among PA users and members of the independent living movement in Europe. The survey was developed and implemented in the spirit of emancipatory disability research, and was informed by the social model of disability and the independent living philosophy. Participants were asked to assess a series of characteristics of PA in terms of their impa…
Performativity and the Disability Category
This article explores critically the relationship between capitalist performativity and the disability category. It draws on Jean-François Lyotard's analysis of postmodernity to define 'performativity' as the principle of performance enhancement governing the world of contemporary techno-capitalism. The analysis then traces the historical development of the disability category in the 20th and 21st centuries and explains its complex interlinking w…
The global Covid-19 Disability Rights Monitor
The global COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor (COVID-19 DRM) has revealed major injustices suffered by disabled people around the world during the first stage of the pandemic, including enhanced institutionalisation, breakdown of essential services in the community, multiplication of intersectional harms, and denial of access to healthcare. In this paper, we present an overview of the COVID-19 DRM and its findings. We also offer a disability stud…
Social vulnerability and the impact of policy responses to Covid‐19 on disabled people
In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the impact of the policy responses to COVID‐19 on disabled people. These responses have overwhelmingly focused on individual vulnerability, which has been used as a justification for removing or restricting rights. This suggests the need to shift the attention towards the social determinants of disabled people's vulnerability. We do this by bringing literature on social vulnerabil…
Epistemic injustice as a bridge between medical sociology and disability studies
This paper explores the potential of the perspective of epistemic injustice to reconcile medical sociology's attention to the micro level of experience and interpersonal exchange, and disability studies' focus on the macro level of oppressive structures. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the concept of epistemic injustice and its key instances-testimonial, hermeneutical, and contributory injustice. We also consider previous appl…
EU Social Inclusion Policies in Post-Socialist Countries
This book explores experiences with inclusion policy implementation in seven different post-socialist EU countries. It focuses particularly on two groups of people in constant danger of social exclusion: People with Roma background and people with disabilities.
Rethinking “Transition” in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Through the Lens of Disability
Published online: 26 April 2024
The purpose of life is a life of purpose
The purpose of the Independent Living Fund Scotland is to empower disabled people to control their own support systems. Established as a ‘closed’ fund in 2015, it has been threatened with eventual closure through attrition. In response, a campaign was organised to open the fund, bolstered by two ‘social return on investment’ evaluations. As a result, the fund was opened in April 2024. This article discusses the background of the Independent Livin…
Decolonising Disability in Contexts of Illiberalism and Social Abandonment
This paper explores the relevance of the decolonial approach for analyses of postsocialist disablement, taking as its test case the analytical tool of the 'postsocialist disability matrix'. The question we pose is how much decolonial critique can the analyses of postsocialist disablement embrace without becoming reactionary amidst growing illiberalism and social abandonment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? We provide an overview of postsocial…
Success and its discontents
This article highlights a paradox. On the one hand, the Independent Living (IL) movement has achieved a resounding success through the widespread ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Yet on the other hand, the mainstreaming of the CRPD has witnessed proliferating misappropriations of IL. This has forced IL activists to fight on two fronts, continuing the older fight for implementing IL p…
Peer support and the collective side of independent living
This article explores the collective side of independent living–a social movement, policy framework, and practical arrangements emerging from disabled people’s struggles for self-determination. The collective side of independent living is revealed by discussing the role of peer support for independent living as political and everyday practice. The first part of the article considers the meaning and essential features of peer support, its importan…
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Disability Rights and Representation (16 works) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (14 works) · Law (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (10 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Politics (8 works)