Creating safer spaces in higher education: failure and discomfort in spacing for difference

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Trento, F. B., Pyyry, N., Aiava, R., & Jäntti, L. (2025). Creating safer spaces in higher education: failure and discomfort in spacing for difference. Emotion, Space and Society, 55, Article 101095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2025.101095

Publication date: 1 May 2025 Added to AutiHub: 27 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
4
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 4 (25.0%)
  1. Francisco B. Trento *
  2. Noora Pyyry
  3. Raine Aiava
  4. Lauri Jäntti

Abstract

This article critically engages with the concept of safer spaces within higher education institutions, which serve as prime examples of young people's institutional spaces. We build the argument by using John Horton and Peter Kraftl's (2006) idea of space as a verb and discuss how failure may be a catalyst for spacing processes. While acknowledging and valuing recent steps towards the creation of institutionalized safer spaces, we question the sufficiency of representational measures and worry about tokenization in safer space guidelines. We argue that safer spaces must be built with an atmosphere of openness, which often exceeds the limits of representational disclosures. We, therefore, probe failure and discomfort as affectual states that may have the potential to create fractures in taken-for-granted ways of thinking/being. Mobilizing Ben Anderson's (2009) concept of affective atmosphere, we emphasize the importance of hesitation and experimentation in opening space for difference. In particular, we focus on the neurodiversity spectrum, understood as a non-fixed continuum (Yergeau, 2018) by exploring situations of vulnerability and discomfort, often linked to failure, through two vignettes: an experience of a neurodivergent academic in the university cafeteria and a classroom experiment of ‘thinking under the table’ with young students.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 27 Oct 2026 10:35.

Cited references
64
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
20
3 / 64 (4.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 64 (6.2%)
References with detected author names
60 / 64 (93.8%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
20
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
83
From DOI or external metadata
83
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
6 / 83 (7.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 77 / 83 (92.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
4 / 83 (4.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 4 / 6 (66.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 4 / 76 (5.3%).
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