CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 70Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchDisability Rights and RepresentationPosthumanist Ethics and Activism

Articulating Sensory Sensitivity: From Bodies with Autism to Autistic Bodies

Belek, Ben·2019·Medical Anthropology
DOI 10.1080/01459740.2018.1460750
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic evidence from several communities of autistic adults in the UK, I explore the crucial role of the body and the senses in the enactment of autistic subjectivities. Following their initiation into autism-related social groups, members begin using such concepts as triggers, overload, shutdown, and meltdown to refer to their bodily experiences of distress. They then face the task of investing these ambiguous concepts with meaning, through nurturing an increased awareness to their body's relationship with its material surrounding. This cultivation of sensitivity ultimately culminates in the transformation of their bodies into what might be termed autistic bodies.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/01459740.2018.1460750

Cites

77 of 77 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

8 of the 85 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Belek, B.
Affiliations
Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL)
Corresponding author
Belek, Ben
ORCID
Belek, Ben
Venue
Medical Anthropology
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2018-05-04
Volume
38
Issue
1
Pages
30-43
ISSN
  • 0145-9740 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-5882
DOI
10.1080/01459740.2018.1460750
OpenAlex
W2801826397
Cited by
70
References
85
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8
FWCI
2.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Medical Anthropology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • The Wyse Fund
  • The Kenneth Lindsay Scholarship Award
  • The Ling Roth Fund
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Posthumanist Ethics and Activism
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, sensory sensitivity, autistic adults, precipitating factors, sensory overload, shutdown, Meltdown, embodiment, autistic community, social groups, distress, materiality of the body
MeSH terms
Adult, Autistic Disorder, United Kingdom, Humans, Language, Self Concept, Social Behavior, Anthropology, Medical

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review