ERC-research group „Democratising the family?“: Second DEMFAM Thursday talk, Elisa-Maria Hiemer, FU Berlin (Web)

Time: 20.11.2025, 4-5 PM
Venue: virtual space – via Berlin

During the final decade of Hungarian state socialism, growing social awareness, the founding of MEOSZ, and the 1981 UN International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP) brought unprecedented attention to physical disability. Media and policy discussions increasingly depicted young people with disabilities as “rehabilitated” and ready for social (re)integration. Yet many, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, struggled after leaving state care due to inaccessible housing, infrastructure, and limited employment.
While independent living and family formation often remained out of reach, such aspirations gained legitimacy in the 1980s. MEOSZ promoted family rights and showcased wheelchair-using parents. Drawing on archival and policy materials, I argue that conformity to heteronormative gender and family ideals served as both emancipation and destigmatization. However, a Budapest “disability housing project” established under the IYDP reveals how selective pronatalism and inflexible policies failed to meet disabled parents’ needs, exposing both their resilience and the persistence of dominant gender norms.

Feel free to share it with your networks and to visit our website for the entire program for this winter term (Web)

Contact and registration: e.hiemer@fu-berlin.de (Web)

Source: HSozKult