When Citizenship demands Care: the inclusion of people with autism in the Brazilian labour market

Abstract

In the late 2000s, a network of agents started to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities into the Brazilian labor market, through an Affirmative Action Law that requires private companies to include from 2 to 5 % of people with disabilities among their employees. In this context, the experiences of people with autism brought to light theoretical and practical discussions on both the autonomy of these people and the 'best ways' of managing their everyday work routines. Perceiving public policies as producers of both subjects and social relations (Shore, 2010; Biehl & Petryna, 2013; Schuch, 2009), we aim to understand their effects in the management practices of different companies and in the citizenship-making processes (Ong, 2003) involving people with autism. Through ethnographic observation of the work environment in private companies, we highlight some 'Western' values implicit both in the public policies and in management technologies which may clash with the "logic of care" (Mol, 2008). By showing how Citizenship demands Care in this context, and how Care always demands a kind of human dependency, we shed light on the complexity of the notion of Care and aim to problematize the concept of Citizenship itself.

Intellectual Disability

“…In some cases, people work towards the creation of new forms of voluntary institutions for care beyond parents' lives (Aydos and Fietz 2017;Fietz 2020). In stark contrast to societies in which care is expected to be separated from romance and sexuality, marriage is often practised as a way of creating new relationships of dependence with the spouse or their parents (Sargent 2021;Manor-Binyami 2018; see also Craft and Craft 1980;Kulick and Rydström 2015).…”

A Glass House of Care: Sheltered Employment for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

“…A total dismissal of the concept of care, however, might conflate notions of dignity with notions of autonomy, thereby promoting seemingly 'universal' notions that could be insensitive to the lives of people with ID (Bostad & Hanisch 2016). To avoid these pitfalls, this study draws upon the work of Annemarie Mol, which has already been utilised in critical disability studies (van Trigt 2019), including in research on employment and cognitive disability (Aydos & Fietz 2017). In her book The Logic of Care (2008), Mol contrasts the logic of care with the logic of choice.…”

“…On the other hand, many researchers refer to the ethics of care, including theorists such as Eva Feder Kittay (Mladenov 2021;Winance 2016). Studies show that care relations in the lives of people with disabilities can result in freedom (Bostad & Hanisch 2016) and can be necessary for labour market participation and citizenship for persons with cognitive disabilities (Aydos & Fietz 2017). When combined, the available research suggests that disability studies should interpret care processes as multifaceted and fraught with tensions (Hennion & Vidal-Naquet 2015;McKearney 2020).…”

Os impactos sociais da Covid-19 no Brasil: populações vulnerabilizadas e respostas à pandemia

“…Por outro lado, tais noções são evocadas nas vertentes contemporâneas em torno do "envelhecimento ativo", que privilegiam os esforços de autoprodução de um envelhecimento atuante, autônomo e independente. As estratégias e modos de organização da vida de Marilene em tempos pandêmicos revelam o quanto é simplista a dicotomia entre autonomia e dependência quando se trata de cuidado (Aydos & Fietz, 2017;Fonseca & Fietz, 2018) e quão importante é compreender os sujeitos produzidos na variedade de seus vínculos e relacionamentos sociais.…”