The network activities explore a critical understanding of autism through three linked key themes:
It is evident that the construction of autism as a developmental disorder has led to a focus on childhood. However, there are increasing numbers of adults with autism speaking about their lives through a number of channels, including social media, books and seminars.
In the UK a re-construction of autism as a form of neurodiversity is gaining ground. Through this discourse autistic traits are positioned on a continuum with ‘neurologically typical’ NT (non autistic, or ‘normal’) behaviours. A neurodiversity discourse has enabled parents, and adults with autism, to talk positively about the (dis)order. The network will provide opportunities to discuss the concept of neurodiversity and examine ways in which biologically based discourses are drawn on to make sense of autism.
How do public and research discourses of neurology affect our theoretical and conceptual understandings of autism?
Policies and programs to deal with autism are often grounded in competing conceptions of how autism is produced, and correspondingly, what types of public action are required. The network will explore and document the range of social and policy interventions, including private, public, and third sector involvement in autism services. A further consideration within this theme is the agency of people with autism and a recognition that some people will not want to engage with mainstream (NT) culture. We draw on the work of the philosopher Barnbaum who argues that autistic ways of being in the world might be “incomprehensively different from the life led by those who are not autistic”.