144 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
I have already made three paintings, in dark colors, in the style of old pic-
tures. The newer paintings are about contemporary times and more colorful.
The series is about cochlear implants and sign language, aiming to show the
evolution from the old times when deaf people had to wear headphones and
learn to speak, and sign language was prohibited, to the modern day.These complex negotiations of identity in relation to including all members of one’s
family touch on the role of choice in emancipation and of reasoning in identity, two
elements emphasized in Amartya Sen’s (2007) book Identity and Violence: The Illusion
of Destiny.We are all constantly making choices, if only implicitly, about the priorities
to be attached to our different affiliations and associations. The freedom to
determine our loyalties and priorities between the different groups, to all of
which we may belong, is a peculiar important liberty which we have reason to
recognize, value, and defend. (Sen, 2007, p. 30)Sen emphasizes that choices are always made within constraints, which is also
the case here, as practices are developed in relation to educational, familial,
community-based, and policy-related resources. Additionally, from a perspective of
relational citizenship, as is illustrated further by the narratives of Flemish Deaf Parlia-
ment in this chapter, I notice that choice should also include room for not- knowing
and for emerging awareness (for further discussion of this “space in between,” see
Hoegaerts & De Clerck, in press).
The sensitivity of the topic and the political character of these choices were focal
points while making the documentary; the film is the result of paying attention to
the role of reasoning in deaf identity, enabling viewers to understand and respect
choices that deaf parents are making. Sen’s (2007) call for looking at this role of rea-
soning is linked to the mobilization of identity in contemporary times. This modern
uncertainty is a central topic in the next section of this chapter.DEAF IDENTITY FORMATION IN TIMES OF CHANGE
AND UNCERTAINTY
In his book Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty, zygmunt Bauman (2007)
describes the shift from “solid” to “liquid” times in modernity: Social structures and
institutions are falling apart, while states increasingly hand out responsibilities to
citizens or private actors. Political institutions are becoming powerless against glo-
balized market players; social security, solidarity, and the community are declining.
Neoliberal competition is being promoted, which leads to a conceptualization of
society as a network (rather than a structure); and short-term thinking threatens
sustainable planning and learning from previous actions.
As individuals who are free to make choices, citizens have increasing responsibilities
on their shoulders, bearing the consequence in the light of risks beyond their control:
It is the insecurity of the present and uncertainty about the future that hatch
and breed the most awesome and least bearable of our fears. That insecurity
and that uncertainty, in their turn are born of a sense of impotence: we seem to