Neurodiversity, Social Work, and Social Justice: Key Issues and Overlaps

Abstract

Neurodiversity is concerned with the spectrum of differences in human minds. Owing to the neurodiversity movement, from the 1980s onwards, social work has been challenged to reconcile its traditional social justice mandate, with ever-increasing socio-political attention to neurodiversity inclusion. If ‘respect for diversities’, as inscribed in the global definition of social work (IFSW, 2014), is anything to go by, the challenge of reconciliation between social work and the neurodiversity movement, should never have been too great. Even so, it is argued that social work has as of late been at odds with the ideological doctrine of making wider social justice change happen in societies. Specifically, it is argued that this constrains social work’s capacity to promote the will and preference of neurodivergent populations. Toward a more socially just approach in social work, key lessons and pathways forward are set out, regarding neurodiversity inclusion and equality, as a complex and pressing matter.