Negotiating Disability Rights In Familialist Welfare Regimes: Families, Care, and Activism In East Asia

With the global diffusion of the Independent Living Movement and the adoption of the UNCPRD, disability rights have become a prominent framework for social policy and activism worldwide. Yet, when these global frameworks travel, they need translation—as disability rights are translated into East Asian contexts, they are reshaped by local institutions, cultural norms, and family relations. While disability rights are increasingly recognized through institutional changes and public discourse, their realization depends heavily on families, particularly mothers, as care responsibilities remain concentrated within households in familialist welfare regimes. Consequently, families become active actors who negotiate, claim, and contest the conditions under which disability rights are realized.

This session explores how families engage with disability rights across East Asian contexts. We are particularly interested in the diverse ways families respond to gaps and contradictions in welfare provision. By broadly discussing both the limitations of the translation within the familialist welfare regime and alternative strategies practiced by families, we aim to examine how families become important sites where citizenship, care, and rights are negotiated and enacted in local contexts.

We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions addressing topics including, but not limited to: disability rights activism, parental advocacy, family-based care, welfare governance, and community care. While bridging studies from different national and regional contexts, this session seeks to advance sociological understanding of how global disability rights frameworks are translated, negotiated, and lived within familialist welfare systems.