Multiple Autisms

Spectrums of Advocacy and Genomic Science

By: Jennifer S. Singh

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Paperback | 1 December 2015

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296 Pages

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21.6 x 14.0 x 3.8

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Is there a gene for autism? Despite a billion-dollar, twenty-year effort to find out--and the more elusive the answer, the greater the search seems to become--no single autism gene has been identified. In Multiple Autisms, Jennifer S. Singh sets out to discover how autism emerged as a genetic disorder and how this affects those who study autism and those who live with it. This is the first sustained analysis of the practices, politics, and meaning of autism genetics from a scientific, cultural, and social perspective.

In 2004, when Singh began her research, the prevalence of autism was reported as 1 in 150 children. Ten years later, the number had jumped to 1 in 100, with the disorder five times more common in boys than in girls. Meanwhile the diagnosis changed to "autistic spectrum disorders," and investigations began to focus more on genomics than genetics, less on single genes than on hundreds of interacting genes. Multiple Autisms charts this shift and its consequences through nine years of ethnographic observations, analysis of scientific and related literatures, and morethan seventy interviews with autism scientists, parents of children with autism, and people on the autism spectrum. The book maps out the social history of parental activism in autism genetics, the scientific optimism about finding a gene for autism and the subsequent failure, and the cost in personal and social terms of viewing and translating autism through a genomic lens.

How is genetic information useful to people living with autism? By considering this question alongside the scientific and social issues that autism research raises, Singh's work shows us the true reach and implications of a genomic gaze.

Industry Reviews

"Jennifer Singh brilliantly elaborates the complex story of how autism science has evolved to give preference to genetic explanations and is driven by advances in microarray technologies. Her analysis is informed by a multidimensional perspective, drawing from her own expert understanding of the scientific research and extensive interviewing with scientists, activists, parents, and people with autism. Multiple Autisms is pathbreaking scholarship that raises urgently important questions about how the research community and other constituencies narrow our understandings of autism as a human condition."-Kristin Bumiller, Amherst College

"Scholars of medical sociology, rhetoric, and broader medical humanities alike would benefit greatly from Singh's text. Now, as biological sciences advance in areas of genomics-and as the popularity of genetic and genomic databases among researchers surely grows-Multiple Autisms will prove to provide important early insights into how these changes matter for those perennially on the receiving end of these multiplying and complex diagnoses."-Medical Humanities

"Multiple Autisms is an important contribution to the autism literature and deserves to be read, not least by those conducting and funding genomics research. It is a well-written and accessible book that showcases the utility and ongoing relevance of thought styles in understanding modern science and medicine."-Social History of Medicine

"Multiple Autisms offers a compelling examination of the biosocial world of autism genetics and genomics, introducing readers to the array of social actors, organizations, technologies and materials that are involved in the constitution of the category of autism today."-Canadian Journal of Sociology

"Singh's Multiple Autisms is an important contribution to understanding the making of genetic models of thought in autism research and beyond."-Oral History Review

"This ambitious work serves as a strong example of sociological research with interdisciplinary implications. It would be a timely addition to courses in medical sociology, the sociology of science and knowledge, and social movement studies."-American Journal of Sociology

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