Title The Western disease : contesting autism in the Somali diaspora / Claire Laurier Decoteau

Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2021

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Description 1 online resource (278 pages) Contents The "Western disease" -- A postcolonial theory of autism -- Uneven landscapes of care -- Approaching autism otherwise -- Political and epistemic mobilization -- Vaccine skepticism and the accumulation of distrust -- The microbiome and postcolonial critique -- Centering the margins Summary Because autism is an increasingly common diagnosis, North Americans are familiar with its symptoms and treatments. But what we know and think about autism is shaped by our social relationship to health, disease, and the medical system. In The Western Disease Claire Laurier Decoteau explores the ways that recent immigrants from Somalia to Canada and the US make sense of their children's diagnosis of autism. Having never heard of autism before migrating to North America, they often determine that it must be a Western disease. Given its apparent absence in Somalia, they view it as Western in nature, caused by environmental and health conditions unique to life in North America. Following Somali parents as they struggle to make sense of their children's illness and advocate for alternative care, Decoteau unfolds how complex interacting factors of immigration, race, and class affect Somalis' relationship to the disease. Somalis' engagement with autism challenges the prevailing presumption among Western doctors that their approach to healing is universal. Decoteau argues that centering an analysis on autism within the Somali diaspora exposes how autism has been defined and institutionalized as a white, middle-class disorder, leading to health disparities based on race, class, age, and ability. The Western Disease asks us to consider the social causes of disease and the role environmental changes and structural inequalities play in health vulnerability Notes Print version record Subject Autism -- Public opinion Autism. Immigrants -- North America -- Attitudes Immigrants -- Somalia -- Attitudes Social medicine -- North America Somalis -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis Somalis -- North America -- Attitudes Somalis -- Ontario -- Toronto Immigrants. Autistic Disorder -- ethnology Public Opinion Attitude -- ethnology Emigrants and Immigrants Autistic Disorder SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. Immigrants Autism Immigrants -- Attitudes Social medicine Somalis SUBJECT North America. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85092455 Somalia https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D012998 North America https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D009656 Minnesota https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D008910 Ontario https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D009864 Subject Minnesota -- Minneapolis North America Ontario -- Toronto Somalia Form Electronic book ISBN 022677239X 9780226772394

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