Beyond Environments: Understanding Autistic Experience as EcosystemWe have spent decades discussing whether Autistic people have suitable environments, but what if we look at the wider ecosystem?
Moving Past the SilosWhen we speak about Autistic experience, the conversation often narrows into discrete compartments. We hear about the social environment. We hear about the sensory environment. Occasionally, we hear about the political environment. Each is treated as if it were a silo, a neat box within which Autistic life can be contained, studied, and explained. But life does not happen in silos. Autistic existence is ecological, not siloed. I’ve previously written about the bodymind as environment, the recognition that even within ourselves, we navigate landscapes of sensation, thought, and emotion. But what happens if we zoom out? From Environment to EcosystemThe word environment suggests a backdrop, something outside us, separate. An ecosystem, on the other hand, is relational. It is about flows, interactions, and the way each element shapes the others. The bodymind environment is intrinsically connected to all other environments we exist within. An Autistic student doesn’t just encounter the sensory environment of the classroom. They encounter:
Each environment is connected, rippling into the others. The experience is not just sensory or just social, it is ecosystemic. The Bodymind in the EcosystemThe Autistic bodymind is not a closed container. It is a node in a wider rhizome. Our sensory differences, cognitive styles, and emotional responses interact constantly with social norms, cultural narratives, political and economic forces, the collateral impact of conflict between third parties. Take fluorescent lighting. For one person, it causes pain. That is a bodymind–environment interaction. But if every school and workplace insists on fluorescent lighting, then the ecosystem itself becomes hostile. The pain now shapes education, employment, and health. It becomes part of an ecosystemic failure that contributes to minority stress. Individual traits only make sense when read in the context of ecosystems. Power HorizonsOur influence within an ecosystem is limited by power horizons, the edges of what we can shape or control, or even perceive as having power in our lives. For Autistic people, those horizons are often narrowed by:
This isn’t just about what happens in immediate settings. Indirect forces matter too:
Even without direct involvement, these currents constrict or expand our horizons of possibility. Conflict in the EcosystemEcosystems are not harmonious. They are full of competition, struggle, and imbalance. So too in the world Autistic people inhabit. Different groups; parents, professionals, activists, corporations compete over resources, narratives, and much more that impacts us. Consider the clash between the autism “cure” industry and neurodiversity activists. Most Autistic people never sit in those boardrooms, but the outcomes filter down. Whether a child is forced into ABA, an adult can access accommodations, or whether funding flows to compliance training or community support. The conflict elsewhere alters the ecology of our daily lives. Even when we do not see the conflict, its consequences shape our survival. Why Ecosystem Thinking MattersIf we focus only on the sensory environment, we hand out ear defenders. If we focus only on the social environment, we impose social skills training. If we focus only on the political environment, we risk ignoring sensory pain. But Autistic life is all of these, intertwined. Philosopher Félix Guattari described this as ecosophy; mental life shaped across environmental, social, and subjective registers. For Autistic people, this resonates deeply: our experience is ecological. Relational ThinkingOne further consideration we must give to this ecosophical approach to Autistic experience is how our relationship with our ecosystem impacts our experience. Place a person in a perfectly designed and accommodating space against their will, and it is likely to fail to support them. if our relationship with the ecosytem is harmful, then no amount of accommodation and restructuring will provide a healthy experience. Further to this, our relationship with the ecosystem is impacted by our experience of it and vice versa. This ecorelational framework of experience is multidirectional and rhizomatic. There is no entey or exit point, only a living network experience. Beyond the ImmediateAusterity, welfare cuts, media rhetoric, all these shape Autistic life even if we never directly experience them. A child may not know Westminster, but budget cuts remove their teaching assistant. An adult may not follow political news, but hostile rhetoric frames them as a “scrounger” at their disability assessment. Further to this is our aforementioned relationship with these issues. Different individuals have different privileges and barriers, resulting in a relational difference from person to person. Austerity doesn’t have the same relational impact for a middle class family as it does for one below the poverty line. Not only is our relationship to austerity measures different, but this in itself also impacts our relationship with the power structures we exist within, and how we engage with and access the world on a fundamental basis. The world is inherently more accessible to a disabled person with financial ir political privilege than it is to a disabled person living below the poverty line. This is why Autistic advocacy must operate on both personal and structural levels. Implications for Research and Practice
Towards Ecosystemic JusticeIf Autistic lives are ecological, then justice must also be ecological. That means:
Autistic people are not isolated organisms to be corrected. We are beings-in-ecosystem. Autistic EcologiesAutistic experience cannot be siloed. It reverberates across sensory, social, cultural, and political systems. By embracing ecosystem thinking, we resist simplistic fixes and pathologising narratives. We demand recognition of the full ecology of our lives; and we open the possibility of ecosystems that sustain, rather than suffocate, Autistic existence. You're currently a free subscriber to David Gray-Hammond. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Saturday, 20 September 2025
Beyond Environments: Understanding Autistic Experience as Ecosystem
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