Neurodiversity as Status Group, and as a Class-within-a-Class: Critical Realism and Dyslexia

Abstract

Dyslexia is seen as one of a number of often overlapping neurodiversities which define a disadvantaged sector of the general population in developed countries. Neurodiversity is redefined in terms of the positive advantages of being a member of this "status group". The role and status of this group in society are considered in the light of stratification theorists such as Marx and Bhaskar-with advocacy for group consciousness as a "class within a class" (Marx) in seeking and asserting change, using Bhaskar's critical realist model. The paper draws on the work of recent scholars and political activists in advocating a model of "humanist class struggle" by the neurodiverse community , adopting Janine Booth's model of trade union enterprise on behalf of the neurodiverse class of workers.