Discursive discrimination against the ‘deaf‐mute’/‘deaf ’ and the importance of categorization in 20th century Sweden

Abstract

This article sheds light on issues concerning discrimination in the history of deaf people in Sweden in the 20th century. With the help of a specific typology of concepts for analysing discrimination exercised through the use of language, it is shown how the categorization of the hearing impaired has changed over time and how, in this process of change, official discourses on ‘deaf‐muteness’ or deafness has shifted from more to less discriminatory in certain respects and from making deaf people out as very different from the majority population to de‐emphasizing differences. The overall social practice is described as moving from assimilation towards inclusion.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Ingrid Svensson for helping to collect the texts analysed in this article and Ilkka Mäkinen for comments on an earlier draft of the article.

Notes

1. Läroplan för Grundskolan is a central educational policy document. All translations of Swedish documents are my own.

2. This is in accordance with how ‘discourse’ is usually defined within Critical Discourse Analyses (see, for example, Reisigl & Wodak, 2001), influenced by Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1975).

3. From the first period 2 private and 1 government bill as well as 29 encyclopaedic entries were analysed. From the second period 12 private and 1 government bill, as well as 17 entries, were analysed. From the third period 12 private and 3 government bills, as well as 48 entries, were analysed.

4. When categories, as cognitive and linguistic phenomena, are referred to I use small capitals. deaf and dumb person thus does not refer to existing people but to a principle according to which people are classified.

5. Svensk Uppslagsbok, in 30 volumes published 1929–1937.

6. Nordisk Familjebok, in 23 volumes published 1923–1937.

7. Lilla Uppslagsboken, in 10 volumes published 1966–1969.

8. Data, in 10 volumes published 1967–1969.

9. Focus, in five volumes published 1970–1971.

10. The name was changed to The Swedish Association of Hard of Hearing People (Hörselskadades Riksförbund) in 1990.

11. Bra Böckers Lexikon 2000, in 25 volumes published 1995–1999.

12. Stora Focus, in 17 volumes published 1987–1990.

13. The word handikappad is still (2006) in frequent use in Swedish and several organizations (like De Handikappades Riksförbund, the Swedish Association for People with Mobility Impairments) use it in their names, while at the same time pointing to the difference between ‘impairment’ and ‘handicap’ in their policy texts. This is the reason ‘handicap’ rather than ‘disability’ is used in some contexts in this article.