Format:
1 Online-Ressource
ISBN:
9780231556330
Content:
Movements that take issue with conventional understandings of autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disability, have become increasingly visible. Drawing on more than three years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with participants, Catherine Tan investigates two autism-focused movements, shedding new light on how members contest expert authority. Examining their separate struggles to gain legitimacy and represent autistic people, she develops a new account of the importance of social movements as spaces for constructing knowledge that aims to challenge dominant frameworks.Spaces on the Spectrum examines the autistic rights and alternative biomedical movements, which reimagine autism in different and conflicting ways: as a difference to be accepted or as a sickness to treat. Both, however, provide a window into how ideas that conflict with dominant beliefs develop, take hold, and persist. The autistic rights movement is composed primarily of autistic adults who contend that autism is a natural human variation, not a disorder, and advocate for social and cultural inclusion and policy changes. The alternative biomedical movement, in contrast, is dominated by parents and practitioners who believe in the disproven idea that vaccines trigger autism and seek to reverse it with scientifically unsupported treatments. Both movements position themselves in opposition to researchers, professionals, and parents outside their communities. Spaces on the Spectrum offers timely insights into the roles of shared identity and communal networks in movements that question scientific and medical authority
Content:
"In Spaces on the Spectrum, Catherine Tan investigates two movements that take issue with conventional understandings of Autism Spectrum Disorder, a developmental disability. She draws on over three years of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with members of the alternative biomedical and autistic rights movements. These two movements reimagine autism in different and conflicting ways. Though their conclusions differ, both provide a window into how controversial beliefs about medicine are empowered and their role in social movements that question science. The alternative biomedical movement is dominated by parents and practitioners who believe in the disproven idea that vaccines trigger autism. Believing that vaccines caused injury, they seek to reverse it with alternative and experimental treatments. On the opposite side, the autistic rights movement is primarily composed of autistic adults who contend that autism is a natural human variation, not a disorder, and that they should have social and cultural acceptance. Both movements encounter opposition from researchers, professionals, and parents outside of their communities who support a mainstream model. Tan examines their separate struggles to gain legitimacy and efforts to transform their beliefs into lived realities. She concludes that sustaining contentious knowledge is central to social movements seeking legitimacy"--
Note:
Frontmatter
,
CONTENTS
,
Preface and Position
,
Acknowledgments
,
1 Warriors and Aliens: Challenging Autism Experts
,
2 Reimagining Autism: As a Difference to Accept, as a Sickness to Treat
,
3 Seeking Hope and Support: Pathways to Autism Movements
,
4 Knowing One's Tribe: The Transformation of Autistic Rights Into Reality
,
5 Laboratories and Experimentation: The Tools and Strategies of "Recovery"
,
6 The Outsiders: Resisting Criticism and Claiming Legitimacy
,
7 Making Space for the Spectrum
,
Appendix A. Interview Protocols
,
Appendix B. Participants
,
Notes
,
Bibliography
,
Index
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780231206136
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780231206129
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Tan, Catherine Spaces on the spectrum New York : Columbia University Press, 2024 ISBN 9780231206136
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780231206129
Language:
English
Keywords:
Autismus
Bookmarklink
