ABSTRACT
The chapter articulates a different sense of community formed by the vulnerable. It embodies a relational ethics informed by dependency. Rather than being morbid, ineffectual, or pessimistic, it embodies transformative potential inspired by conditions of vulnerability and suffering. The author examines the notions of “community” adopted as the unit of analysis in communication and linguistic studies. He demonstrates how the DS notion of “community of dependent frail bodies” brings affective, relational, and semiotic resources that differ from notions such as speech community, discourse community, and communities of practice. He demonstrates the communicative practices of such notions of community through the rhetorical concept of métis, which adopts unorthodox practices and navigates unchartered terrains to generate knowledge and meaning. He illustrates the value of this practice through a literacy event in his war-torn Sri Lanka where under-resourced scholars engage in generating resistant knowledge and communication through an anomalous assemblage of resources from their environment.
