Charlotte Brownlow

Ethical issues for qualitative research in on-line communities

Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in Internet technologies, which offer new possibilities for researching hard to reach groups. However, research guidelines, which could aid research in this new forum, have not yet been fully developed. The focus of the article will be ethical issues that may arise from using the Internet as a research tool if we are to protect and respect our participants. Questions surrounding gaining informed consent, privacy of participants and new power differentials, which may arise through interaction in an on-line forum, are raised. These are supplemented by reflections from work conducted by the authors using on-line discussion formus as method of research with people with autism.

Presenting the Self: Negotiating a Label of Autism

Abstract Background An important element in the experiences of people with autism is the key role played by therapeutic interventions. This paper examines the role of therapeutic intervention and the construction of individuals with autism in the therapeutic relationship. Method The contributions to four online asynchronous discussion lists were analysed using discourse analysis over a 3-month period. Findings Two key themes identified in the data are presented. These comprise issues concerning therapeutic intervention and issues related to the employment opportunities of adults with autism. Conclusions In this paper the notion that people with autism must change in order to accommodate the non-autistic world is discussed. The author seeks to present an alternative construction of autism as a difference rather than a deficit or deviance and to examine the negotiation of a place for a person with autism within a neurologically typical dominated society.

Mapping the social geographies of autism : online and off-line narratives of neuro-shared and separate spaces

This paper draws together empirical work that has been produced by the authors in two different autistic spaces: the Swedish magazine Empowerment produced by and aimed at adults with autism, and English-speaking autistic communities online. While the two points of data collection are quite different, there are important points of commonality that enable us to explore central issues concerning autistic and neurotypical space and the meanings assigned to these in different contexts. The paper aims to introduce the notion of social geographies of autism, based on talks among adults with autism and a social movement to promote autistic identities, giving examples from our previous work that has spanned both online and off-line spaces. Key issues discussed in the paper include a focus on autistic political platforms and the carving out of both social and political spaces for people with autism. In doing so, neuro-separate and neuro-shared spaces must be negotiated.

Investigating interoception and body awareness in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder

This study aimed to investigate the current gap in the literature with regard to how adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interpret elements of the interoceptive sense, which includes thirst, hunger, temperature, satiety, and the prediction of onset of illness. Adults with a diagnosed ASD (n = 74; 36 males, 38 females) were compared to a control group (n = 228; 53 males, 174 females, 1 unspecified) in their self‐reported perceptions of body awareness utilizing the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) and thirst awareness using the Thirst Awareness Scale (TAS). Those in the ASD group reported a clinically significant lower body and thirst awareness compared to the control group, and this was a large effect (BAQ; d = −1.26, P < 0.001; TAS; d = −1.02, P < 0.001). These findings are of clinical importance, as difficulty with sensing internal bodily states could theoretically impact on the physical and mental health, social interactions and self‐awareness of adults with ASD. Autism Res 2015, 8: 709–716.

Critical autism studies: exploring epistemic dialogues and intersections, challenging dominant understandings of autism

Abstract 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.

Normative Development and the Autistic Child

As critical scholars, we are interested in the social construction of ‘normal’ development in children and how this operates discursively through the construction of ‘other’ childhoods that are seen to be different from the norm. Ideas about ‘normal’ development are naturalised in and through psychological descriptions of children’s behaviours, particularly in the appeal to childhood as biologically constituted, and produced through an evolutionary process (Brownlow & Lamont-Mills, Chapter 13, this volume; Burman, 2008; Morss, 1990; Rose, 1989a).

Re-presenting Autism: The Construction of 'NT Syndrome'

Autism is a widely researched area and much emphasis has been placed in research on the differences between the autistic and non-autistic populations. Such research commonly draws on proposed deficits within people with autism in order to explain differences. This paper seeks to present an alternative understanding of differences and draws on writings of people with autism in such a discussion. The construction of ‘Neurologically Typical syndrome’ (NT) will be presented as an inverted construction of diagnosis, which serves to challenge the dominant position of ‘NTs’ and ‘NT traits’ over autistic traits. It will be argued that such an alternative representation of people with and without autism has important implications for our construction of and understanding of autism.

Exploring the potential for social networking among people with autism: challenging dominant ideas of 'friendship'

Within dominant approaches to autism and relationships, people with autism are assumed to be either unable to form relationships or are in need for educational interventions to be better equipped at managing relationships in a social world dominated by non-autistic people (neurotypicals). In this paper, we argue that broader constructions of friendship are needed in order to best account for the desire and abilities of high-functioning people with autism to have satisfying friendships and that the engagement with online social networking may provide a useful tool in achieving this.

Deficit and asset identity constructions of single women without children living in Australia: An analysis of discourse

Construction of adult life course and identity has typically been built around norms of partnering and parenting, placing single women who do not have children outside the norm. Studies undertaken with single women have found that relationship status was a key factor in their identity construction. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with five single women without children living in Australia. Drawing on critical discursive psychology, we found that participants negotiated two contesting discourses to construct their identities: the Heterosexual Relationship and Family Life discourse and the Independent Single Woman discourse. In crafting identities, tensions were identified between the positioning of self and the positioning of self by others, particularly with respect to the Heterosexual Relationship and Family Life discourse. This was evident in some women contesting the positions afforded by the discourse, instead drawing on an asset identity. This asset identity enabled the women to pursue positive life opportunities.

Challenging Understandings of “Theory of Mind”: A Brief Report

Researchers have proposed numerous theories to explain autism, ranging from those that are psychologically focused to those influenced by biology and neurology. Many theories of autism share the assumption that there is a deficit in people with autism that should be researched, classified, and, ultimately, modified if the hypothesis suggests that this may be possible. Therefore, the common link among these theories is an assumption that there is something wrong with the person with autism. One highly influential theory purporting to explain the characteristics of autism is that they are caused by an inability to understand others’ mental states; in other words, autistic people are considered to lack a ‘‘theory of mind.’’ This theory is dominant in explanations of autism, with significant influence within the professional field and in constructions of the person with autism. In this article, we critically examine the theory of mind hypothesis using empirical analysis of online material in which neurodiverse adults, including some who identified with the label of autism, reflected on theory of mind. Neurodiversity is a term that was initially conceived by people with autism in their reframing of deficits and differences and first appeared in an academic essay by Judy Singer in 1999. There has been a call for neurodiversity to be recognized and considered among with the more familiar categories of gender, class, and race (Singer, 1999).