CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Ergete, Tilahun Kifle |
|---|---|
| Title | "Stop Dragging Me! I Am Not Your Object!": Exploring the Lived Experiences of Blind People, the Role of Disabled People's Organizations, and the Politics of the State in Ethiopia |
| Summary | In 2009, the government of Ethiopia introduced one of the most contentious Civil Society Proclamation (CSP-No 621/2009). The law strategically excluded civil society organizations (CSOs) from five specific politically sensitive areas among which the promotion of the rights of disabled people is the one. The government’s intention was to keep away those influential international CSOs and local CSOs with more than 10 percent of their budget from foreign funding agencies, from engaging in the politics of the state. However, the unintended consequence victimized local disabled people’s organizations (DPOs). As a result, DPOs’ representation, as well as the participation of disabled people, seems to be at risk. Based on 26 semi-structured interviews and five-months ethnographic research, conducted among the blind community in three urban areas and one semi-rural village in Ethiopia, this thesis develops two main arguments. First, the participation and positionality (exclusion) of disabled people, particularly those who live in the urban areas, is not only implicitly (re)produced and shaped by the state and non-state actors but also consumed by the government to restore and maintain the hegemony of the state. Second, there is a significant gap between the socially-constructed and mainstream (theoretical) understanding of disability which guides the intervention, and the lived experiences (empirical) of disability. By analyzing these two main arguments, I conclude that the politics of the state and the fact that the socially constructed understanding of disability guides the disability intervention are the determinant factors of the marginalization of disabled people in Ethiopia. |
| Supervisor | Li, Ju ; Dafinger, Andreas |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/ergete_tilahun.pdf |
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