Expressing and Examining Morality in Everyday Life: Social Comparisons among Swedish Parents of Deaf Children

Malin Åkerström; Katarina Jacobsson

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.5.2.03

Authors

Malin Åkerström Lund University, Sweden
Katarina Jacobsson Lund University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.5.2.03

Keywords:

Integration, Social comparisons, Morality, Everyday life, Identity work, Deaf culture, Hard-of-hearing, Sign language, Sweden

Abstract

Social comparisons, seeing oneself in relation to others, are universal, common, and perhaps even necessary. In a study of parents of deaf children, intense, open, and mutual examinations were voiced in parental groups, meetings between parents and professionals, and interviews. These comparisons were generated in a specific situation created by successful claims for separate milieus advocated by the Deaf movement. The local culture, “the deaf world,” was characterized by close proximity and a highly charged ideological moral climate. With the central argument that strong integration breeds comparisons and examinations, we conclude that the integration of parents creates a situation perfect for drawing comparisons, creating not only cohesion, but also renewed separatist distinctions, expressed in terms of moral examinations, competition and envy. Studying the content and details of comparisons in any given field makes the particular morality that is bred, fed, and elaborated obvious.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Malin Åkerström, Lund University, Sweden

Malin Åkerström is professor at Department of Sociology, Lund University, Sweden. Her research interest covers areas such as qualitative studies of social problems, and medical sociology.

Katarina Jacobsson, Lund University, Sweden

Katarina Jacobsson is an Associate Professor of sociology at Department of Social Work, Lund University. Her major research areas are qualitative studies of deviance, social control, and medical sociology.

References

Akerström, Malin; Katarina Eriksson and Birgitta Höglund (1995) Dövvärlden i förändring [A Changing World of the Deaf]. Department of Sociology, Lund University: Research Program in Medical Sociology.
Google Scholar

Berbrier, Mitch (1998) “’Being Deaf has very little to do with one’s ears’: Boundary- Work in the Deaf Culture Movement.” Pp. 70-100 in Perspectives on Social Problems vol. 10, edited by J. Holstein och G. Miller. London: JAI Press.
Google Scholar

Berbrier, Mitch (2002) “Making minorities: Cultural Space, Stigma Transformation Frames, and the Categorical Status Claims of Deaf, Gay and White Supremacist Activists in Late Twentieth Centurey America.” Sociological Forum 17(4): 553-591
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021025307028

Cain, Carole (1991) “Personal stories: Identity Acquisition and Self-Understanding in Alcoholic Anonymous.” Ethos 19: 210-253.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1991.19.2.02a00040

Cohen, Albert K. (1955) Delinquent Boys. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Corker, Mairan (1993) “Integration and deaf people: the policy and power of enabling environments.” Pp 145-154 in Disabling Barriers - Enabling Environments, edited by J. Swain, V. Finkelstein, S. French and M. Oliver. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Davis, Lennard (1995) Enforcing Normalcy. Disability, deafness and the body. London: Verso.
Google Scholar

DeVault, Marjorie L. (1991) Feeding the Family. The Social Organization of Caring as Gendered Work. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Engel, David (1993) “Origin Myths: Narratives of Authority, Resistance, Disability, and Law.” Law & Society Review, 27: 785-826.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3053953

Flynn.R.J. & K.E. Nitsch, eds. (1980) Normalization, Social Integration and Community Services. Baltimore, MD. University Park Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00004356-198012000-00031

Gluckman, Max (1955) The Judicial Process: Among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Google Scholar

Gubrium, Jaber F. and James A. Holstein (2002) “From the individual interview to the interview society.” Pp. 3-32 in Handbook of Interview Research, edited by J. F. Gubrium and J. A. Holstein. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412973588

Gustavsson, Anders and Mårten Söder (1993) Normalization and then ...? Stockholm College of Health and Caring Sciences. Stockholm: FoU rapport nr 3.
Google Scholar

Hunt, Scott and Kimberly Miller (1997) “The Discourse of Dress and Appearance: Identity Talk and a Rhetoric of Review.” Symbolic Interaction 20(1): 69-82.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1997.20.1.69

Ibarra, Peter and John Kitsuse (1993) “Vernacular Constituents of Moral discourse: An Interactionist Proposal for the Study of Social Problems.” Pp. 21-53 in Constructionist Controversies, edited by G. Miller and J. Holstein. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315080505-2

Jacobsson, Katarina (1999) “Conveying the Right Knowledge: Rhetorical Work With Families of the Deaf.” Pp. 239-260 in Perspectives on Social Problems, vol 11, edited by J. A. Holstein & G. Miller. London: JAI Press.
Google Scholar

Jacobsson, Katarina (2000) Retoriska strider – konkurrerande sanningar i dövvärlden [A Battle of Words – Competing Truths in the Deaf World]. Ph.D.dissertation. Lund: Palmkrons förlag.
Google Scholar

Jacobsson, Katarina and Åkerström, Malin (1997) “Villains, Fools and Heroes: Social Types in the Context of Swedish Deaf Education.” Disability & Society 12: 557- 571 Jarkman, Kristina (1996) Ett liv att leva. [A life to live] Stockholm: Carlsson.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599727128

Karp, David (1992) “Illness Ambiguity and the Search for Meaning: A Case Study of a Self-Help Group for Affective Disorders.” Contemporary Ethnography 21: 139- 170.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124192021002001

Lane, Harlan (1984) When the Mind Hears: a History of the Deaf. New York: Random House.
Google Scholar

Lyman, Scott (1989) ”Envy.” Pp. 184- 209 in In The Seven Deadly Sins: Society and Evil. New York: General Hall.
Google Scholar

Maxwell, Madeline M. and Pam Kraemer (1990) “Speech and identity in the deaf narrative.” Text 10(4): 339-363.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1990.10.4.339

Merton, Robert (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. Enlarged Edition. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Najarian, Cheryl G. (2006) Between Worlds: Deaf Women, Work and the Intersection of Gender and Ability. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Noble, William (1997) “Social and material ecologies for hearing impairment.” Pp. 92- 10 in Material Discourses of Health and Illness edited by Lucy Yardley. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Persson, Tove and David Wästerfors (2009) “Such Trivial Matters: How staff account for restrictions of residents’ influence in nursing homes.” Journal of Aging Studies. 23(1): 1-11.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2007.09.005

Sacks, Oliver (1989) Seeing Voices - A Journey into the World of the Deaf. London: Pan Books.
Google Scholar

Scheler, Max (1992) On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing edited by H. Bershady. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Sellerberg, Ann-Mari (1993) Handikapp och organisering. [Disability and Organizing] Research program in medical sociology 1993:7. Lund: Sociologiska intitutionen, Lunds universitet.
Google Scholar

Sellerberg, Ann-Mari (1994). A Blend of Contradictions. Georg Simmel in Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.
Google Scholar

Simmel, Georg (1964) The Sociology of Georg Simmel edited by Kurt H. Wolff. New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

Simmel, Georg (1971) On Individuality and Social Forms edited by D. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Snow, David A. and Leon Anderson (1987) “Identity Work among the Homeless: The Verbal Construction and Avowal of Personal Identities.” American Journal of Sociology 92(6): 1336-1371.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/228668

Socialstyrelsen (2001) Uppföljning av landstingens tolktjänstverksamhet för barndomsdöva, dövblinda, vuxendöva och hörselskadade år 2000. [The county councils’ interpreter services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people: year 2000] Stockholm: National Board of Health and Welfare.
Google Scholar

SOU (1991) En väg till delaktighet och inflytande [Toward participation and involvement] No. 97. Stockholm: 46 Governmental Official Reports.
Google Scholar

SOU (1996) TUFF – teckenspråksutbildning för föräldrar [Sign Language Education for Parents] No. 102. Stockholm: Governmental Official Reports.
Google Scholar

Säwe, Filippa (1999) Samförstånd och konflikt. [Collaboration and Conflict] Licentiate's Dissertation 1999:3. Lund: Department of sociology.
Google Scholar

Säwe, Filippa (2004) Att tala med, mot och förbi varandra. [Speaking with, against and at cross purposes] PhD dissertation. Lund: Department of sociology.
Google Scholar

Zelizer, Viviana (1985) Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children. New York: Basic Books.
Google Scholar

Wästerfors, David (2008) “Doing Normalcy: Attractive Interactions for Teenage Boys with Disabilities.” International Journal of Sociological Research 1(1):1-21.
Google Scholar