Deaf Culture as culture of resistance. How the Deaf Culture emerged in the United States and was adopted in Poland Cover Image

Kultura Głuchych – kultura oporu. Rozwój amerykańskiej Kultury Głuchych i konsekwencje jej implementacji w Polsce
Deaf Culture as culture of resistance. How the Deaf Culture emerged in the United States and was adopted in Poland

Author(s): Magdalena Zdrodowska
Subject(s): Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Politics, Sociology of Education
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: deaf; Deaf Culture; Polish deaf; resistance; education; Deaf President Now!; cochlear implants;

Summary/Abstract: Deaf Culture is a part of the long process of evolution of the American deaf community. Established in American social, cultural and political realm, Deaf Culture benefited greatly from the principles of self-organisation, self-efficiency as well as civil rights movements and movement of people with disabilities, gaining its peak in the 1990s. In this form Deaf Culture was adopted by the Polish deaf communities, that were redefining themselves in the post-socialist transformation period. Adapting the American model of Deaf Culture as normative, the only “true” and “correct” deaf experience, Polish deaf took over: the distinction between Deaf and deaf, the opposition towards cochlear implants, and the spirit of resistance and public protesting. The article investigates the resistant character of the Deaf Culture as well as its consequences in Polish post-socialist political and social context.

  • Issue Year: 41/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 287-313
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: Polish