Mind Games: Contestations of Policymaking on Neurodiversity - Dana Lee Baker

This book focuses on tracing the nascent aspects of the politics of neurodiversity at the beginning of the 21st century. This book thereby builds on studies of the politics of neurodiversity that have until now primarily focused on the history of activism and advocacy by expanding into broader questions of political science, representation, and public policy theory. Centered on exploration of agenda setting, policy formulation, and social movements, the book contributes new insight into a burgeoning policy subsystem. Mind Games moves beyond the question of legitimacy of neurodivergence as an aspect of diversity and examines how a contemporary social movement aims to realize a coherent agenda around an evolving understanding of human diversity, equity, and belonging.

Rooting the exploration of the politics of neurodiversity and neuroinclusion in traditional political science and social theory, the authors provide a comprehensive understanding of the efforts within public policy implementation to negotiate the relationship between sameness and difference in the context of neurological difference. In other words, the book provides a novel insight into a burgeoning policy subsystem reshaping the understandings of rights and the role of behavioral sciences in the public sector. Mind Games is therefore a valuable resource for both scholars with a variety of interests in politics, policy, and society, as well as for activists and professionals working in fields related to neurodiversity.