2011

Honorable Mention: Sarah Phillips
Title: Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine (Indiana University Press)

The prize committee unanimously agreed that Sarah Phillips’ rich ethnographic study, Disability and Mobile Citizenship in Postsocialist Ukraine, deserves significant mention. This study provides an important perspective on civic organizations in new democracies. Phillips’ compelling and beautifully written narrative argues that civic organizations in Ukraine are largely driven by personal need and access to scarce resources. The study provides a rich history of state policy and social attitudes toward disabled citizens in the Soviet space. As such, Phillips’ study breaks important new ground in addressing the concerns of the disabled as well as the structural impediments to the formation of civic organizations in post-Communist states.

Winner: Kristen Ghodsee