Cyborgization: Deaf Education for Young Children in the Cochlear Implantation Era

Valente, Joseph

doi:10.1177/1077800411414006

Cited by 43 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…In this respect, the CI is conceived as a quasi-object [83,225], a thing in-between, that separates and relates soon to be familiar and/or social communities (here the non-hearing and the hearing) as well as being shaped by mutually adaptive mediation processes. While other visualization practices, such as the ones analyzed in the first chapter, tend to dehumanize or typify the CI as well as the implantees, the astonishing success of the first-time-activation videos is based on the medical as well as the audiovisual objective to fix deafness and thus (re-)humanize the patients [95]. In a wider sense, the (re-)humanizing surgery, as well as the following adaptation process, is inscribed in the practices of normalization explained by Normalization Process Theory (NPT), a Bsociological toolkit^helping to understand the dynamics of implementing, embedding, and integrating new technologies or complex interventions in medical practice in order to restore lost or deficient human capacities [58].…”

Section: Rehumanizing: the Staging Of First-time-activation Videosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within these ethical and medical controversies, the question was raised whether the CI and the corresponding implantation as a typifying cyborg technology should be considered as a means of either humanizing [95,[641][642] or dehumanizing the implantees or making them Bless human^ [30,38], respectively. 8 The first perspective, the affirmative view on the CI, is narrated and produced in Michael Chorost's biographic account Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human, Non-Human, and Beyond: Cochlear Implants in Socio-Technological Environments

2015

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The paper focuses on processes of normalization through which dis/ability is simultaneously produced in specific collectives, networks, and socio-technological systems that enable the construction of such demarcations. Our point of departure is the cochlear implant (CI), a neuroprosthetic device intended to replace and/or augment the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which amplify sounds, the CI does the work of damaged hair cells in the inner ear by providing sound signals to the brain. We examine the processes of the CI's genesis as well as its specific uses by and interrelations to the different and divergent actors that the CI assembles. We argue that the technological device and the implicated normalization process mobilize complex effects in varying socio-technical arrangements. The CI is conceived as a Bboundary object^[89] or a Bquasi-object^[49, 83], i.e., a metastabilized medium of translation that coordinates social, cultural, and technological (inter)action. Although intended to transform non-hearing or hard of hearing people into competent and Bnormal^hearing subjects, the CI system reproduces the asymmetrical structures of the disability discourse [14] through its function of Bdeveloping and maintaining coherence between intersecting social worlds^ [89, 393]. Additionally, it initiates controversial discourses that have resulted in new forms of biosocial collectivities ranging from cochlear implantees with (restored) normal human hearing to (trans)human configurations who have passed through (post)human enhancement. Our approach is thus situated at the intersection of disability and media studies and tackles the particular conditions technological media configurations impose upon the (re-)production of dis/ability.

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Section: Rehumanizing: the Staging Of First-time-activation Videosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human, Non-Human, and Beyond: Cochlear Implants in Socio-Technological Environments

2015

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“…[6] Nowadays, the idea of the cyborg can be found all around us, in medicine (think about pacemakers), in the military (DARPA), in sports (Paralympic Games) and in the so-called "disability studies". Joseph Michael Valente describes cyborgization as an attempt to codify "normalization" through cochlear implantation in young deaf children [7]. Drawing from Paddy Ladd's work on Deaf epistemology and Donna Haraway's Cyborg ontology, Valente takes the concept of the cyborg to challenge constructions of cyborg perfection.…”

Section: Cyborgsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…] are under the sway of audism, as children and parents become unquestioning subjects of the ubiquitous phonocentric colonial empire." [7] (p649). Valente refers to the quest for perfection and normalization as fundamental principles for cyborgization.…”

Section: Cyborgsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cyborg Mermaid (or: How Technè Can Help the Misfits Fit In)

Mussies¹,

Maliepaard

2017

MTI

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Abstract:In feminist studies, the figure of the mermaid has long been regarded as flawed, disabled and less-than-human. Her theoretical counterpart in that respect would be the cyborg, an image used to show that with the aid of robotics, humankind could be larger than life. What would happen if we could combine those two images and apply them to create "super love" more-than-human relationships? This article explores the possibilities of technology for "mermaids", people who normally fall outside the norm, to satisfy human desires in a new way. Two case studies will be presented, first we will look at people who identify as having ASD (Autism Spectre Disorders) and second we explore the use of technology for people who have BDSM-oriented desires (related to Bondage and Discipline (B&D), Dominance and Submission (D&S), and Sadism and Masochism (S&M)). We briefly discuss the added value of practice theory for exploring how people are altered by technè.

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“…The notion of the cyborg was first developed by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in a 1960 article that focused on humans synergized with both human and electrical components and functioning as a living organism [3]. Since then, there has been an explosion of Cyborg Studies and these themes have extended into the realm of deaf lives and their embodied experiences through technology including cochlear implants [4][5][6][7]. Cyborgs (short for cybernetic organism) are the people, cybernetics are the parts that replace body parts.…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating Deaf Bodies and Corporeal Experiences: The Cybernetic Deaf Subject

Horejes

Heuer

2013

Societies

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Deaf people negotiate their embodiment through corporeal experiences to provide a perception of what it means to be human. Some deaf people search for a framework where being deaf is human, not a disability. Other deaf people experience their deafness as a disability and use technology as a means to negotiate their embodiment and experiences. The role of technology or cybernetics, particularly cochlear implants, for the deaf will be examined as a way to understand cultural identities and diverse ideological perspectives concerning what it means to be deaf and normal. Then, this paper focuses on social constructed 'bodies' for the deaf using embodied theory and action as a part of a theoretical framework to showcase theoretical ideas and actualities of some deaf people's lives and experiences. These discussions are ways to open dialogues and collaborative inquiries on larger important issues such as what it means to be deaf and, in essence, human.

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Cyborgization: Deaf Education for Young Children in the Cochlear Implantation Era

Cited by 43 publications

References 54 publications

Human, Non-Human, and Beyond: Cochlear Implants in Socio-Technological Environments

Human, Non-Human, and Beyond: Cochlear Implants in Socio-Technological Environments

The Cyborg Mermaid (or: How Technè Can Help the Misfits Fit In)

Negotiating Deaf Bodies and Corporeal Experiences: The Cybernetic Deaf Subject

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