Paper short abstract:

Considering autism as a lens through which to analyse social changes, I explore the transformations of sociality and communication shaped by neoliberal ideologies of subjectivity. I draw on the idea of the looping effect to explore the porous boundaries between normality, ability and disabilities.

Paper long abstract:

In recent decades, one of the salient features of the debate on autism has been its focus on the increase in diagnoses. Various explanations for the phenomenon – both biomedical and social – have been proposed: these include a redefinition of the autistic condition and a greater understanding of the autistic experience. However, in the biomedical and psychiatric fields, autism is still interpreted as a deficit and not as a difference. Autistic people are still described as lacking social skills and the ability to understand neurotypical forms of communication. Following this model, many available therapies aim to compensate for these alleged deficits. However, the social and communication skills considered appropriate are not innate but socially, culturally and historically determined. In this presentation, drawing on different sources and methodologies, including documentary research, analysis of medical literature and auto-ethnography, I explore a looping effect between autism and society. With the term “looping effect”, philosopher of science Ian Hacking defined how a classification – e.g. an autism diagnosis – and the people classified interact and are mutually transformed in the process.

In this paper, by considering autism as a lens through which to understand social transformation, I analyse another looping effect: how new ideas (and ideology) of normality redefine disability. Specifically, I examine how new ideas of sociality, developing in particular in the Global North and influenced by a neoliberal approach to individuality, are transforming the boundaries of appropriate behaviour and how these changes are impacting the definition of autism.