Theorising the deaf body: using Lefebvre and Bourdieu to understand deaf spatial experience

Abstract

In the field of Deaf Geographies, one neglected area is that of the individual deaf body and how individual deaf bodies can produce deaf space in isolation from one another. Much of the work published in the field talks about collectively or socially produced deaf spaces through interaction between two or more deaf people. However, with deaf children increasingly being educated in mainstream schools with individual provisions, and the old social networks and institutions of deaf communities coming under threat by the closure of deaf clubs and changing work practices, more research on the way in which individuals can produce their own deaf spaces and navigate those spaces is needed. In this paper, I outline two possible theoretical approaches, that of Lefebvre’s productive gestures to produce social space, and Bourdieu’s habitus, capital and hexis. I suggest that these theories can be productively utilised to better understand the individual basis of the production of deaf spaces.

Viewing angle matters in British Sign Language processing

“…Indeed, for deaf signers this inclusive proxemic strategy is “embodied habitus”, i.e. typical of how deaf bodies use space 29 . However, it should be noted that such accommodation strategies are not always possible or simply not enacted in casual interactions, meaning a large amount of communication takes place at suboptimal viewing angles.…”