Introduction: Sign Language, Sustainable Development, and Equal Opportunities

The idea of exploring various understandings of the relationships among sustainable development, sign language, and equal opportunities from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives emerged from a postdoctoral research project titled "Sign Language Communities, Deaf Worldviews, and Sustainable Development" that I conducted with support from the Flanders Research Foundation from 2012 to 2015 at Ghent University, Belgium. Funding from the Flemish Ministry of Equal Opportunities, as well as partnerships with the European Union of the Deaf and Federation of Flemish Deaf Organizations, facilitated international exchange and the development of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary perspectives, the result of which was Sign Language, Equal Opportunities, and Sustainable Development (De Clerck & Paul, 2016), a 12-chapter multicontributor work that, starting with the present issue, is being reprinted in abridged form in the American Annals of the Deaf in 3-chapter increments.

Sign Language, Equal Opportunities, and Sustainable Development explores the notion of the sustainable development of human potential for deaf citizens in relation to their quality of life. Sustainable development is also considered in terms of sign language communities and societies as they experience transitions in which they face new challenges but also new opportunities.

These transitions include recent developments such as mainstreamed and inclusive education, assistive devices such as cochlear implants, increased virtual and transnational contact, greater social mobility, states' official recognition of sign languages, broader use and increased visibility of sign languages occurring simultaneously with sign language endangerment, threats to the transmission of deaf culture, and new or extended frameworks for human rights and linguistic and cultural diversity. These dynamics of change are closely interwoven, each issue invariably affecting the others (De Clerck, 2017).

The challenge of sustainable development can be formulated as developing "the capacity to deal with change and to adapt to new situations" (Williams, 2003, p. 18). The competencies implicit in this capacity are not specific to the deaf landscape; indeed, they must be situated against a broader background of globalization that calls for responses in the form of a coherent narrative (Wood & Landry, 2008; for an in-depth discussion, see De Clerck, 2017). Formulating a coherent narrative of sustainability can be seen as a part of "cultural vitality," which is described as "the fourth pillar of sustainability," complementing the other three pillars of environmental responsibility, economic viability, and social equity (Hawkes, 2001). Thinking sustainably can be seen as "new thinking" (Wood & Landry, 2008): "New thinking looks at interdependencies, relationships, and how assemblies of parts make a whole. It takes complexity as its starting point. It tends to value diversity in thought, ideas, and the makeup of people" (p. 22).

Increased interaction between deaf citizens and deaf communities and the "mainstream societies" in which they function is creating the potential for greater equality of opportunity for people who are deaf. This new level of interaction is also enabling a transition of deaf communities into broader-based sign language communities, as more and more people, both deaf and hearing, come to appreciate the emancipatory value of signing. These changing communities' understanding of what is required to become sustainable is also taking new forms—in areas such as full participation and citizenship in society, economic well-being, access to quality education, and cultural and linguistic identity.

Three main questions have emerged in regard to examining sustainability:

1. 1. How can we catch a glimpse of the varied faces and factors of sustainable development in relation to sign languages and equal opportunities?

2. 2. Does a shared view come to the forefront from which sustainability can be approached and put into practice?

3. 3. What conception of human beings could be the basis of this view?

The Varied Faces and Factors of Sustainable Development

The contributors to Sign Language, Equal Opportunities, and Sustainable Development describe the complexity of sustainable development and identify factors and indicators that come into play. This book thus provides a starting point from which further research can be developed.

Chapter 2 ("A Dialogue on the Multiple Facets of Sustainability") presents excerpts from a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary dialogue that preceded the International Conference on Sign Language, Sustainable Development, and Equal Opportunities, held in Ghent, Belgium, in...