View Table of Contents

Series

Volume 1

Disability and Chronicity through the Ethnographic Lens

Reviews

“Becoming Advocate is a powerful ethnography of parent-led activism on behalf of autistic children in Portugal. As an autism scholar and anthropologist, I read it with great interest and found the moments detailed between parents and their children beautifully evocative and engaging.” • Roslyn Malcolm, Durham University

Description

Tracing the emergence of autism in Portugal, from its early recognition in child psychiatry to the rise of parent-led advocacy and digital activism, this book examines how families confront inadequate services, challenge outdated paradigms and advocate for educational and social reforms. Drawing on ethnography and critical analysis, it defines advocacy as a transformative practice that reshapes parents’ identities and links care with politics, showing how digital infrastructures become a force for collectivising in the absence of state support, revealing the intertwined socio-institutional and affective dimensions of care and civic engagement in Portugal. It explores how autistic subjectivities challenge normative notions of personhood and citizenship.

Subject: Medical Anthropology

Area: Southern Europe

Contents

Back to Top

---

Of Related Interest

Dignity for the Voiceless

Willem Assies's Anthropological Work in Context

Critiquing Neoliberalism

Art and Activism in Post-Recession Dublin