Journal article
Fieldwork on Another Planet: Social Science Perspectives on the Autism Spectrum
BioSocieties, v 3(3), pp 325-341
Sep 2008
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The autism spectrum disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental syndromes of
communication, behavior and social cognition. Over the past decade, they have
received increasing attention from scholars in the social sciences. This
research has been motivated by the prospect of critiquing and improving support
services and therapies, by self-advocates who have argued that autism should be
tolerated as a form of difference rather than treated as a disorder, and by the
interest inherent in syndromes that seem to affect many of the attributes that
we use to define personhood. In this commentary, I review social science
research on the autism spectrum. I identify some key approaches in the work,
including the idea of autism as a culture, transcultural comparisons, studies
based on treatment strategies, investigations of subjectivity and interpersonal
relations, and research on social movements. In the process, I suggest some
further directions for this area of research. I also consider some reasons why
the autism spectrum disorders are a particularly interesting site for studies of
the ways that biomedical information is used to craft individual and group
identities.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Fieldwork on Another Planet: Social Science Perspectives on the Autism Spectrum
- Creators
- Chloe Silverman - Penn State University, STS Program, 201 Old Botany, University Park, PA 16802USA E-mail: cbs14@psu.edu
- Publication Details
- BioSocieties, v 3(3), pp 325-341
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK
- Number of pages
- 16
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000207743400007
- Other Identifier
- 991014877653204721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Social Sciences, Biomedical