Implementing ‘real’ change: a Bourdieusian take on stakeholder reflections from the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities project in Uruguay

Abstract

This study aims to illustrate the process of implementing a national disability project targeting structural change facilitated by the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD), and analysed through the theoretical lens of Pierre Bourdieu. This paper presents qualitative case study findings from interviews with key representatives from the UNPRPD country project in Uruguay in 2019. Participant responses were coded and analysed using Bourdieu's definitions of field, doxa, capital, habitus and hysteresis as a framework to understand complex inter-institutional experiences. Findings indicate a significant shift in cultural capital within government ministries and United Nations agencies. Immersion into a paradigm of disability rights and programmatic doxa established by the UNPRPD altered fundamental aspects of participant habitus, creating a mismatch between internal and environmental conditions. Furthermore, shifts in political power created concerns about what constitutes ‘real’ change, and increased the disruption between habitus and perceptions about the UNPRPD project achievements.