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The, stock.ho~m rneqfclub: A case,stuc0 YERKER ANDERSSON ompared to other disabled groups, deaf people are highly organized. In practically all the countries where educational services are available for all deaf children, deaf people have successfully formed organizations at all levels, from local to national. Their international organizations (World Federation of the Deaf, Comite International des Sports des Sourds, International Committee on Silent Chess) are among the oldest in the world. This network suggests that cooperation among deaf people is well developed. The structure of organizations of deaf persons and deaf culture in different countries is influenced by the culture of the dominant group. As pride in local heritage and community pride are emphasized more in European countries than in the United States, local organizations are expected to be more important for deaf persons in Europe (Andersson, 1987, p. 263). The local organizations of deaf people in European cities provide a place where deaf people can share their experiences, feelings, and ideas, where people can preserve their natural language, and where deaf people can reach a political consensus. The Nordic local organizations go further by offering adult or continuing education programs, day care services for deaf children, courses in sign language, and lectures. In some countries the local organization is also used as a center for audiological, counseling , or rehabilitation services, and several local organizations are trying to assume responsibility for interpreting services as well. From sociological and anthropological viewpoints, then, the local organization serves as an important agent in the transmission of deaf culture. While the national and international organizations of the deaf are relatively stable and secure, local organizations of the deaf in several highly industrialized countries are facing some profound social changes. Deaf people in most metropolitan cities now enjoy a much greater variety of activities and consequently try to create more and more specialized clubs. For example, there are recreational and sportfishing events or clubs in the United States and Europe. This kind of social change will certainly continue the preservation of sign language and the enrichment of local deaf heritage, but may weaken the political and social unity of deaf people. The proliferation of cultural and recreational activities occurs not only among deaf people, but also among people with normal hearing. Sociologists and anthropologists agree that it is an inevitable trend in most countries around the world. Any attempt to reverse the trend would be viewed as a repression of human development or as a suppression of human freedom. The Stockholm Deaf Club Thus, clubs for the deaf in major metropolitan areas may have to be flexible enough to meet the changing needs of deaf persons, if they want to survive. To that end, deaf clubs will need to consider several alternatives, each with its own advantages and disadvantages . The five primary alternatives are dissolution, consolidation, centralization, satelliting, and centrality. Dissolution is an alternative most local organizations, of course, would try to avoid. But some deaf clubs in some metropolitan cities have been forced to disband owing to lack of interest. In several European countries, several deaf clubs have successfully merged into a single organization to expand their membership and budget. This kind of consolidation is not popular, however, because it requires members of the new organization to abandon their old reference groups and develop a new one. However, consolidation does permit deaf people to expand their political and social solidarity. Deaf clubs in large cities in North America and in a few European countries have taken a slightly different alternative to consolidation. These clubs have formed a coordinating council while permitting the clubs to retain their independence and identity. This strategy, centralization, works well as long as the individual clubs have a strong desire to cooperate among themselves. In certain cities in the United States and in a few European countries, clubs for the deaf often use a deaf community center-often managed by a church, school, or welfare agency-as a meeting place, while retaining their separate addresses as "satellite offices." The deaf leaders of these deaf clubs have no political influence on the boards of such centers. Deaf people in Stockholm, Sweden, have chosen a slightly different alternative, one that is unique and worth studying. Instead of developing new organizations outside their existing social clubs, they have tried to keep all their activities together within one place. This fifth alternative could be called centrality. In sociology, the concepts of centralization and centrality do not have the same meaning. The crucial...

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