Rostovskaya, T.K., Naberushkina, E.K. & Sukhushina, E.V. (2025) The disablement of men in Russia: Current situation and the search for a theoretical- methodological research context. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Politologiya – Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science. 87. pp. 192–206. (In Russian). doi: 10.17223 ...

Текст статьи на сайте журналв URL: http://vital.lib.tsu.ru/vital/access/manager/Repository/koha:001270501 (дата обращения 23.12.2025)

Abstract

In contemporary society, the problem of disablement is becoming increasingly relevant, particularly in the context of the human potential of the country's young men. A distinctive feature of this research is its rejection of viewing people with disabilities as a homogeneous group. Instead, it focuses on a specific stratum selected by socio-gender criteria – young men with acquired disabilities. This approach necessitates a sequential engagement with both the general models of perceiving disability and the gender aspects of its study. The article consistently addresses two main objectives: (1) to subject the medicalized discourse of disability to critical analysis and, based on rhizomatic thinking, to propose a more relevant methodological framework for researching disability issues in modern Russian society; and (2) to examine the statistical picture of disablement among young men resulting from external causes. In the first part, as a means of overcoming the medico-social paradigm of understanding disability, a resource-based approach is proposed. This approach actualizes the agentic potential of a person with a disability. The gender focus further radicalizes the research lens, as the social significance of young men is linked to expectations regarding their active labor, demographic, and socio-political resource. Moving away from a universal model of disability and actualizing the resource-based approach requires a new methodological framework. One of its foundations, within the context of the chosen research object, is proposed to be a gender-sensitive approach. Gender theory, through the concept of hegemonic masculinity and contemporary research, helps to define socio-cultural attitudes associated with sex as a factor in both the disablement and rehabilitation of men. In the second part, a secondary analysis of official statistical data – reflecting the current situation of acquired disability among men due to causes such as occupational injuries, road traffic accidents, and combat injuries – along with a review of scientific results from domestic researchers, served as the primary methods for studying the causes and scale of disablement among the young male population in the Russian Federation.