Capital gains: Neurodivergence, workplace disclosure and storytelling

Abstract

Using insights from Bourdieu’s theories of social space, this paper explores how neurodivergent workers negotiate disclosure in an organisational field that is centred around neuro-normativity. The paper draws on interview data from neurodivergent people in the UK workplace, exploring the relationship between the disclosure process and Bourdieu’s theories of capital. In addition, Walter Benjamin’s essay on storytelling is used as a methodological framework to explore how storytelling around disclosure can enable the acquisition of capital. The analysis emphasises the ways in which the telling and retelling of disclosure ‘stories’ create perceptions that allow for recognition of value and a related increase in the cultural capital of neurodivergent employees.