A view of Citizenship from the Difference: Reflections about the Deaf Community

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was the construction of a substantive theory about the Deaf Community of Caracas. This research emerged from the account and interpretation of the symbolic imaginaries that the deaf community, as a different linguistic group, has developed and in which the sign language, as first language, becomes the vehicle for the transmission of beliefs, values and worldviews. The research is an account on the significances that the Deaf build towards life. Within these representations, the citizenship concept emerges, as well as the right to have rights from the Difference. The selected methodology was based on the ethnographic approach and on the use of the Continuous Comparative Method (Strauss and Corbin, 2002). The study was developed in three phases: Ethnographic, Interpretative and Theoretical. Ten Deaf adults (community leaders and part of different social spheres) participated. As a conclusion, I can point out the need for a horizontal assumed teaching technique that will allow to activate educative, linguistic and anthropological mechanisms, in order to favor the access to the deaf world through their language and culture.