Building on work in feminist studies, queer studies and critical race theory, this volume challenges the universality of propositions about human nature, by questioning the boundaries between ...predominant neurotypes and ‘others’, including dyslexics, autistics and ADHDers. This is the first work of its kind to bring cutting-edge research across disciplines to the concept of neurodiversity. It offers in-depth explorations of the themes of cure/prevention/eugenics; neurodivergent wellbeing; cross-neurotype communication; neurodiversity at work; and challenging brain-bound cognition. It analyses the role of neuro-normativity in theorising agency, and a proposal for a new alliance between the Hearing Voices Movement and neurodiversity. In doing so, we contribute to a cultural imperative to redefine what it means to be human. To this end, we propose a new field of enquiry that finds ways to support the inclusion of neurodivergent perspectives in knowledge production, and which questions the theoretical and mythological assumptions that produce the idea of the neurotypical. Working at the crossroads between sociology, critical psychology, medical humanities, critical disability studies, and critical autism studies, and sharing theoretical ground with critical race studies and critical queer studies, the proposed new field – neurodiversity studies – will be of interest to people working in all these areas.
Neurodevelopmental classifications and the collective idea of neurodivergence can be seen as a 'moving target'. In our understanding, this means that it responds to the needs of society as well as ...potentially infinite neurological differences between humans. Therefore, rather than assume that neurodiversity exists according to the existing clinical categories of autism and related conditions (that are often centred around autism as the exemplary kind of neurodivergence), we leave the possibility open that there are other forms of difference that have yet to be defined. In the paper we explore how neurodiversity has been described as a collective property of brains, as we try to negotiate between us what it is to be human and how we can work together to ensure our flourishing and to alleviate suffering. We consider implications of this understanding of neurodiversity for autism research, and propose that we unpick the analogy between neurodiversity and biodiversity.
Increasingly, neurodivergent people are sharing their own narratives and conducting their own research. Prominent individuals have integrated the ‘nothing about us without us’ slogan, used by ...neurodivergent and other disabled social activists, into academia. This article imagines a neuromixed academia. We consider how to work through challenges present in neuromixed encounters; to support cross-neurotype communication and pave the way for an ethos of community and collaboration. We explore how we might create a space in which neurodivergent experiences are seen as just one part of our complex and multifaceted identities. We do this through the process of ‘cutting our own keys’, to try out new possibilities of neurodivergent storying aimed at finding ourselves in our own stories about neurodivergence. This involves borrowing and developing methodological approaches formulated outside of research on different forms of neurodivergence, and to invent our own concepts based on our own embodied experiences and the social worlds we inhabit. Throughout, we mingle our own autoethnographic accounts in relation to research accounts and theories, as a way of illustrating the work with the text as a thinking about neurodivergence with each other in itself.
Lay abstract
A lot of people who do research are also neurodivergent (such as being autistic or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), but neurodivergent people do not always feel welcome in research spaces which are often shaped around neurotypical people. Some neurotypical researchers lack confidence in talking to neurodivergent people, and others feel like neurodivergent people might not be able to do good research about other people who are like them without being biased. We think it is important that all researchers are able to work well together, regardless of whether they are neurotypical, autistic, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or any other neurotype) – in truly ‘neurodiverse’ teams. In this article we talk about how to create better spaces for all researchers, where we feel valued for who we are and take each others’ needs into account. We do this using some approaches from other areas of research and talking about how they relate to our personal experiences of being neurodivergent researchers with our own personal stories. This article adds to a growing work on how we can work with people who are different from us, in more respectful and kind ways.
Autistic people have historically been described as incapable of developing a deeper sense of self-awareness, and autistic understandings of self-awareness have been largely disregarded. The aim of ...this study is to explore the way young autistic adults try to understand their functionality and who they are, or to develop their sense of self-awareness, in work and in private life contexts. In 12 qualitative interviews conducted with four autistic adults without learning difficulties, we identified a rich set of reflections on knowing and accepting oneself. The overarching theme of self-knowledge has three subthemes: learning from previous experiences, learning about oneself by securing the support of others, and understanding and accepting autistic functionality. The strategy of self-knowledge was used by these young adults to help them achieve functional lives in the work and private domains. Our results show that young autistic adults both actively explore and develop their self-awareness. We suggest that it is important for practitioners and employers working with autistic individuals to engage with their journeys of self-awareness as a vital part of understanding and supporting them.
Lay abstract
When researchers and professionals talk about autism, they commonly point out problems and risks with autism or being autistic. Several interventions are based on the idea of the problems and risks of autism. Another way of talking about autism is to point out autistic people’s strengths and strategies which they use to handle barriers and problems in their lives in order to live good lives on their own terms. In this article, the researchers explore how autistic young adults formulate their own difficulties, strengths and support needs in order to get right support from support people. To be able to formulate this, autistic people need to get to know oneself and one’s own way of functioning. Autistic own self-knowledge must be central when formal support people, such as social workers, formulate support and interventions aimed at helping autistic people, in order for the support/intervention to be helpful.
Autism is conceptualized in much scientific literature as being associated with restricted and repetitive interests, characterized by an ‘empathy deficit’, and negatively impacting social ...communication. Meanwhile, ‘good and healthy’ sexuality is largely considered to be a social endeavor: asexuality and sexualities defined by acts rather than by partner gender—for example kink or BDSM—are broadly pathologized. Perhaps, therefore, first-hand autistic experiences of sexuality challenge existing assumptions about ‘good and healthy’ sexualities within couplehood. As a theoretical starting point to explore this potential, we revisit Gayle Rubin’s notion of ‘sex within the charmed circle’ to ask whether autistic sexuality can ever truly ‘fit’ within this (neurotypically defined) virtuous sexual arena. We further consider the ways in which the intersection of autism and sexuality is understood and experienced in first-hand autistic accounts of sexuality within a specific context, through analysis of a Swedish online discussion forum in which autistic people discuss sexuality. In doing so we seek both to better understand autistic sexual experience, and to track and deconstruct potentially restrictive assumptions of (non-autistic) couple sexuality more generally. We also consider ways in which assumptions of deficit concerning both non-normative sexualities and autism may have a deleterious effect on autistic people and on research more broadly, limiting theoretical and conceptual understandings of autism and autistic ways of (sexual) being by a default comparison to sexual and neurological norms.
This paper explores different meanings of being social among autistic people who are employed at an autistic-separate workplace in Sweden. The analyses in this paper are based on data from fieldwork ...at an autistic workspace consisting of autistic people working with peer support directed at young autistic adults in Sweden. Two different forms of sociality, which take place in two different social environments, are highlighted: environments dominated by non-autistic people and those dominated by autistic people. Interest-based sociality includes the importance of having interest-based exchanges with one another, and having common interests and communication based on genuine interest in the topic being discussed. Socially based sociality is, rather, based on social group identification. The first is the dominant form of sociality among the participants, which they connect with being in an autistic space. The second may be viewed as a counter-dominant form of sociality among the participants, which they connect with being in spaces dominated by non-autistic people.
Dans cet article, nous explorons ce que signifie « être sociable » pour des personnes autistes employées dans une entreprise adaptée spécialisée en Suède. Notre analyse est basée sur un terrain réalisé dans une entreprise adaptée, dans laquelle des personnes autistes travaillent et proposent de l’aide par les pairs pour des jeunes adultes autistes vivant en Suède. Deux formes de sociabilité sont mises en évidence, qui se déploient dans deux types d’environnement social : d’une part, dans celui dominé par des personnes non autistes, d’autre part, dans celui dominé par des personnes autistes. Une sociabilité basée sur l’intérêt suppose l’importance d’avoir des échanges basés sur l’intérêt, les uns avec les autres ; elle suppose que l’on a des intérêts communs et que la communication est basée sur l’intérêt réel pour le sujet dont on discute. Une sociabilité basée sur le social est, elle, une sociabilité basée sur une identification sociale à un groupe. La première forme de sociabilité est la forme dominante parmi les participants, qu’ils associent au fait d’être dans un espace autiste. La seconde forme peut être considérée comme une forme contre-dominante de socialité parmi les participants, qu’ils associent au fait d’être dans des espaces dominés par des personnes qui ne sont pas autistes.
Non-autistic people is frequently described as best positioned to provide support to autistic people. But what could autistic peer support, where the support actor is another person with autism, ...mean? The aim of this paper is to explore different meanings of development and peer support at an autistic-only work place in Sweden. The analyses in this paper is based on data from a field work among a group of autistic self-advocates in Sweden. The group is working together in a three-year autist led project aiming at supporting young adults with autism with life strategies and with peer-to-peer mentoring as well as educating employers about autistic abilities. In the group ideas of an alternative autistic development to be nurtured and supported by autistic peer support is brought forward. Support to autistic people has to be based on understandings on autistic functionality and ways of developing and learning. This includes support in executive function, formulating goals and future aspirations, support in to get to know your abilities, embrace and cherish your strengths and interests, and get to know your difficulties including strategies to manage them, without reinforcing a sense of failure.
In this paper we explore how our cultural contexts give rise to different kinds of knowledges of autism and examine how they are articulated, gain currency, and form the basis for policy, practice ...and political movements. We outline key tensions for the development of critical autism studies as an international, critical abilities approach. Our aim is not to offer a cross-cultural account of autism or to assume a coherence or universality of 'autism' as a singular diagnostic category/reality. Rather, we map the ways in which what is experienced and understood as autism, plays out in different cultural contexts, drawing on the notion of 'epistemic communities' to explore shifts in knowledge about autism, including concepts such as 'neurodiversity', and how these travel through cultural spaces. The paper explores two key epistemic tensions; the dominance of 'neuro culture' and dominant constructions of personhood and what it means to be human.
In the current research climate, in which many autistic and autism communities are increasingly calling for a move towards collaborative forms of research, we consider how a loosely formed ...epistemological community may serve to challenge 'business as usual' in the academy. Mindful of the need to move beyond theory, we use this experience to concretely consider how knowledge about autism and neurotypicality can be meaningfully (co)-produced, and made available both to the research community and also to autistic and autism communities. Here, we use our own co-production of this article to explore how autistic experience may trouble normative meanings of academic knowledge production. We also consider the limits and possibilities of a neurodiverse research collaboration to reflect on ways in which a loose epistemological space may serve to contribute to knowledge about both autism and neurotypicality, adding to debate around collaborative research.
Abstract
In this article, we explore experiences of support and self-management amongst young autistic adults in the context of vocational support interventions in Sweden. We analyse how young ...autistic men use different strategies to manage their vocational work and the support they need to maintain, achieve and sustain their work performance. Data consist of eleven interviews with 4 autistic young adult men in different work environments where vocational support interventions are implemented to different degrees. One finding concludes that the interviewees are affected by and try to adapt to neurotypical norms and expectations about working life and adulthood. Although individualised coping strategies can be helpful, it is important for employers and formal support persons to understand and acknowledge that individual emotional and problem-solving coping strategies are demanding and need to be combined with adaptations in the working environment. Another finding concludes how work managers act as gatekeeper in the vocational support system the young autistic men aspire to access and in which they need to manage their work performance. Thus, social workers must provide structured and well-coordinated formal work support by both involving the autistic clients’ employers, work managers and informal networks.
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