The document discusses the concept of the "Deaf Glocal Circuit," which refers to deaf people purposefully traveling to experience deaf spaces and communities around the world. It explores how sign languages and deaf spaces have become commodified for deaf tourism. While this tourism can support local deaf economies, it also raises issues of authenticity and responsibility. The document examines theories around tourist encounters and the morality of exchange, arguing that deaf tourism involves complex political, cultural, and moral dimensions beyond just economic exchange.

1. The Deaf Glocal Circuit:
Moral dimensions
Erin Moriarty, PhD
Gallaudet University & Heriot-

2. How it all began…from Cambodia to Bali
• Fieldwork: Cambodia 2012-2016
• Participant observation: Deaf tourists kept popping up at NGOs
• Interviews : Deaf Cambodian narratives about guiding tourists,
conflicts between NGO administrators (deaf and hearing) and
tourists demanding access
• An active social enterprise sector all over Cambodia: Every
single thing was made by people with disabilities!
• MobileDeaf fieldwork in Bali for 7 months in 2018

3. Tourism theory in a nutshell
• Early work: a typology of tourism and tourists (e.g. mass tourism, solo traveler,
backpacker, etc.)
• Motivation: pursuit of the exotic and the Other, conceptualized as a quest for
authenticity (MacCannell 1976)
• But! It’s not that simple…(Bruner 2005)
• The tourist gaze (Urry 1990)
• Expectations that tourists impose on local people/things in their search for
an "authentic" experience
• Tourist imaginaries (Salazar 2010)
• Assemblages of ideas, images and discourses about a place/people
• Commodification of places and languages for tourist consumption

4. Theorizing deaf tourism
• Deaf events, deaf takeovers, temporary deaf cities (Haualand 2007)
• Deaf universalism / intervention, e.g. “empowerment” camps (Friedner & Kusters
2014)
• Deaf schools as tourist attractions (Moriarty Harrelson 2015, 2017, 2020)
• Foreign deaf tour companies vs. local ownership (Cooper 2015)
• Authenticity, e.g. “fooled by” signing hearing Cambodian guide (Cooper 2015)
• “Deaf villages” as tourist attraction (Kusters 2015)
• The global deaf circuit (Moriarty Harrelson 2015)
• Commodification of sign language (Moriarty Harrelson 2017)

5. The Deaf Ecosystem in tourism:
Sharing on social media

6. What is the Deaf
Glocal Circuit?
The purposeful quest for deaf people and
spaces:
•Deaf schools
•Deaf villages
•Deaf clubs
•Deaf restaurants
•Deaf coffee shops
•AND the deaf network, seeing/
experiencing new sign languages,
meeting “local” deaf people, the deaf
ecosystem
•Has a moral component

7. Commodification of deaf
spaces and sign languages?
• Sign language to index disability (e.g. social
enterprise)
• Exchange not just economic: there are also
political, cultural, and moral dimensions
(Mauss)
• ‘Solidarity seeking’ commodity culture
(Mostafanezhad 2013)
• Social justice through consumption (Bryant &
Goodman 2004)

8. The Encounter
• “At the heart of tourism is encounter –
perhaps its defining, distinguishing feature”
(Crouch et al., 2001)
• Tourism’s most “cherished, commodified,
essential element is encounter” (Gibson
2009)
• Tourism encounters are immediate,
embodied and geographical; people travel
to experience them (and encounters are
also experienced by the people who are
local)

9. The morality
of exchange
Tourist encounters and
language is a central theme in
the performance of tourism, and
is associated with particular
exchange values, especially in
interactions between “locals”
and tourists (Jaworski and
Thurlow, in Coupland 2013)

10. Morality in
Deaf
Tourism
Tourism is an activity
fraught with morality
(Butcher 2003)
Marseille, France July 2019 Photo credit: Katherine O. Breen

11. The responsible deaf tourist
• In global North deaf discourses,
seemingly “universal” ethical
expectations have become attached
to international deaf mobility
• Discourses of responsibility in
tourism:
• Ethical consumerism by seeking out
and supporting the local deaf economy
(e.g. local deaf guides & businesses)

12. Deaf eco-
consciousness
• “Responsible consumption” & “responsible
tourism” involves an awareness of and
participation in the local deaf ecosystem:
• Meeting “local” deaf people
• “Local” deaf guides and other businesses
• Giving back to “local” deaf communities
• Learning the “local” sign language (and/or
refusing to use ASL or BSL)

13. Glocal deaf guides
• Different aspects of working with deaf guides
• Linguistic authenticity (Cooper 2015)
• Supporting local deaf economy (e.g. Hands on Tours use of local
guides)
• However, deaf value systems may clash sometimes:
• Expectation of discounts or free services
• Unclear expectations of who pays for what (situation with French deaf group in
Cambodia)

14. Video: Gio

15. The Deaf Ecosystem as a Network
• “We were lucky because deaf people have contacts all over.We got some contacts and now we
are able to give on our contacts, we are all connected.”
• “InAsia we would pay for petrol and get food or places to sleep in return.Then we would ask for
some contact information and recommendations in another city.When we had gotten some we
would keep traveling. Deaf people would share contact details of others and that would be a
guide on our path.”
• “There are deaf people with big hearts and there are deaf people that are poor and see it as an
opportunity. I can understand that and I don’t mind paying.They see us as coming from Europe
and being lucky to travel so I don’t mind paying for food. If communication is not going well, we
may stay for 2-3 days but if we have good chats with hosts we stay longer.”

16. Video: Wahyu

17. The end