Autistic expertise: A critical reflection on the production of knowledge in autism studies

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Milton, D. (2014). Autistic expertise: A critical reflection on the production of knowledge in autism studies. Autism, 18(7), 794-802. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361314525281

Journal or book title
Autism
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
18
Issue
7
Pages
794-802
Publication date: 17 Mar 2014 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Damian Milton *

Abstract

The field of autism studies is a highly disputed territory within which competing contradictory discourses abound. In this field, it is the voices and claims of autistic people regarding their own expertise in knowledge production concerning autism that is most recent in the debate, and traditionally the least attended to. In this article, I utilise the theories of Harry Collins and colleagues in order to reflect upon and conceptualise the various claims to knowledge production and expertise within the field of autism studies, from the perspective of an author who has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. The notion that autistic people lack sociality is problematised, with the suggestion that autistic people are not well described by notions such as the 'social brain', or as possessing 'zero degrees of cognitive empathy'. I then argue, however, that there is a qualitative difference in autistic sociality, and question to what extent such differences are of a biological or cultural nature, and to what extent interactional expertise can be gained by both parties in interactions between autistic and non-autistic people. In conclusion, I argue that autistic people have often become distrustful of researchers and their aims, and are frequently frozen out of the processes of knowledge production. Such a context results in a negative feedback spiral with further damage to the growth of interactional expertise between researchers and autistic people, and a breakdown in trust and communication leading to an increase in tension between stakeholder groups. The involvement of autistic scholars in research and improvements in participatory methods can thus be seen as a requirement, if social research in the field of autism is to claim ethical and epistemological integrity.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

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: 3 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
64
With a DOI
22
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
34
15 / 64 (23.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
16 / 64 (25.0%)
References with detected author names
52 / 64 (81.2%)
Without detected author names
12
Without a structured title
14
Without a stable identifier
29
References with raw author names still to review
10
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
84
From DOI or external metadata
84
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
10
33 / 84 (39.3%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 51 / 84 (60.7%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
17 / 84 (20.2%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 17 / 33 (51.5%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 7 / 58 (12.1%).
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