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Special Units for Young People on the Autistic Spectrum in Mainstream Schools: Sites of Normalisation, Abnormalisation, Inclusion, and Exclusion

Author

Listed:
  • Louise Holt
  • Jennifer Lea
  • Sophie Bowlby

    (Department of Geography, The University of Reading, PO Box 227, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AB, England)

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of young people on the autistic spectrum (AS) who attend a special unit within a mainstream secondary school in England. The paper feeds into contemporary debates about the nature of inclusive schooling and, more broadly, special education. Young people on the AS have been largely neglected within these debates. The paper focuses upon processes of normalisation and abnormalisation to which the young people on the AS are subject, and how these are interconnected with inclusion and exclusion within school spaces. At times, the unit is a container for the abnormally behaving. However, processes of normalisation pervade the unit, attempting to rectify the deviant mind—body—emotions of the young people on the AS to enable their inclusion within the mainstream school. Normalisation is conceptualised as a set of sociospatially specific and contextual practices; norms emerge as they are enacted, and via a practical sense of the abnormal. Norms are sometimes reworked by the young people on the AS, whose association with the unit renders them a visible minority group. Thus, despite some problems, special units can promote genuine ‘inclusive’ education, in which norms circulating mainstream school spaces are transformed to accept mind—body—emotional differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Louise Holt & Jennifer Lea & Sophie Bowlby, 2012. "Special Units for Young People on the Autistic Spectrum in Mainstream Schools: Sites of Normalisation, Abnormalisation, Inclusion, and Exclusion," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(9), pages 2191-2206, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:9:p:2191-2206
    DOI: 10.1068/a44456
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davidson, Joyce, 2010. "'It cuts both ways': A relational approach to access and accommodation for autism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 305-312, January.
    2. Nancy Hansen & Chris Philo, 2007. "The Normality Of Doing Things Differently: Bodies, Spaces And Disability Geography," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 98(4), pages 493-506, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Louise Holt & Sophie Bowlby & Jennifer Lea, 2017. "“Everyone knows me …. I sort of like move about†: The friendships and encounters of young people with Special Educational Needs in different school settings," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(6), pages 1361-1378, June.
    2. Eleni Damianidou & Andri Georgiadou, 2021. "“LOOK at YOU!”: Disembodiment between ugly bodies and able minds," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1823-1839, September.
    3. Elsa Davidson, 2021. "The child sensorium as privileged biopolitical resource: Sensory care and the burden of emotional control in middle class North American childhood," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1129-1147, September.
    4. Andrés Martínez-Medina & Sonia Morales-Calvo & Vicenta Rodríguez-Martín & Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez & Valentín Molina-Moreno, 2022. "Sixteen Years since the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: What Have We Learned since Then?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-21, September.
    5. McLaughlin, Janice & Coleman-Fountain, Edmund, 2014. "The unfinished body: The medical and social reshaping of disabled young bodies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 76-84.

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