Discourse on deinstitutionalisation and disability rights in Czechia: professional stances and the persistence of institutional logics

This study contributes to the international debate on why deinstitutionalisation may not be achieving its intended outcomes, drawing on the experiences of practitioners who have acted as change agents in the Czech context over recent decades. Through a discursive stance analysis framed within an interpretive, critical approach, the research offers detailed insights into their accounts of experience. The findings indicate a discourse that swings between paternalistic and rights-based perspectives, leading to divergent understandings of deinstitutionalisation and complicating both shared comprehension and the effectiveness of practical interventions. By highlighting the persistent influence of the need for paternalistic care in a post-socialist setting, the study underscores the call for professional change management and curated discourse that would consider individual and interpersonal factors alongside legal, financial and organisational measures, and foster more critically-informed interaction among actors, both across disciplines and in practice.