Human neurodiversity matters. Neurodivergence and neurodiversity are fundamental characteristics of the (human) population. The essential nature of this diversity means that the quality of government and governance is unavoidably affected by approaches taken to neuroinclusion in the cultural, political, and economic spaces of current societies. Public administration cannot avoid being both entangled with the construction of neuroinclusion and affected in practice by neurodivergence and neurodiversity. Using the case of autism politics and policy, this article explores selected examples of contestations in policy narratives, neuroethical policy gaps, and persistent myths surrounding neurodiversity and neuroinclusion affecting the practice of contemporary public administration.
BakerD.L. (2011). The Politics of Neurodiversity: Why Public Policy Matters. Lynne Rienner.
2.
BakerD. L.BakerR. L. (2021). Neuroethical policy gaps: A lifetime’s exploration of public policy design and the human brain. Springer.
3.
BakerD. L.LeonardB. (2016). Neuroethics in higher education policy. Palgrave Macmillan.
4.
CascioM. A. (2020). “Asperger’s syndrome does not exist”: The limits of brain-based identity discourses around Asperger’s syndrome and autism in Italy. BioSocieties, 16, 196–224. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-020-00191-8
5.
CavanaghS. (2006). Spinsters, schoolmarms, and queers: Female teacher gender and sexuality in medicine and psychoanalytic theory and history. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 27(4), 421–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300600988531
6.
EmsleyC. (2009). The Great British Bobby: A History of British Policing from the 18th Century to the Present. Quercus.
7.
FitzgeraldD.CallardF. (2015). Social science and neuroscience beyond interdisciplinarity: Experimental entanglements. Theory, Culture & Society, 32(1), 3–32.
8.
GangestadS. W.GrebeN. M. (2017). Hormonal systems, human social bonding, and affiliation. Hormones and Behavior, 91, 122–135.
IshayM. (2008). The history of human rights: From ancient times to the globalization era. University of California Press.
11.
JoldersmaC. W. (2018). Philosophical questions and opportunities at the intersection of neuroscience, education, and research. In SmeyersP. (Ed.), International handbook of philosophy of education (pp. 1261–1278). Springer.
12.
LeifeldP. (2013). Reconceptualizing major policy change in the advocacy coalition framework: A discourse network analysis of German pension politics. Policy Studies Journal, 41(1), 169–198.
13.
LilienfeldS. O.AslingerE.MarshallJ.SatelS. (2017). A Field Guide to Exaggerated Brain-Based Claims. The Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics.
14.
LomaxE. M. (1996). Small and special: The development of hospitals for children in Victorian Britain. Medical History, 40(S16), 1–217.
MacdonaldK.GermineL.AndersonA.ChristodoulouJ.McGrathL. M. (2017). Dispelling the myth: Training in education or neuroscience decreases but does not eliminate beliefs in neuromyths. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 1314.
PenningtonM. L.CullinanD.SouthernL. B. (2014). Defining autism: Variability in state education agency definitions of and evaluations for autism spectrum disorders. Autism Research and Treatment, 2014, Article 327271. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/327271
20.
PierceJ.SiddikiS.JonesM. D.SchumacherK.PattisonA.PetersonH. (2014). Social construction and policy design: A review of past applications. Policy Studies Journal, 42(1), 1–29.
21.
PitneyJ. J.Jr. (2015). The politics of autism: Navigating the contested spectrum. Rowman & Littlefield.
22.
ProehlB. (2016). A hundred thousand worlds. Penguin Press.
23.
RossiJ. (2016). Culturing fear: Mothers, magazines, and the discourse of disease. The Journal of Popular Culture, 49(4), 759–779.
24.
SabatierP. A.Jenkins-SmithH. (1993). Policy change and learning: An advocacy coalition approach. Westview Press.
25.
ScotchR. (2001). From goodwill to civil rights: Transforming federal disability policy. Temple University Press.
26.
ShenF. X. (2015). Neurolegislation: How US legislators are using brain science. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 29, 495.
27.
SiegalB. (2018). The politics of autism. Oxford University Press.
28.
SievertK.SievertK.LawrenceM.ParkerC.RussellC. A.BakerP. (2021). Who has a beef with reducing red and processed meat consumption? A media framing analysis. Public Health Nutrition, 25(3), 578–590.
29.
SilbermanS.HughesW. (2015). Neurotribes: The legacy of autism and the future of neurodiversity. Avery.
