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Book . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Book . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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Ontological Coexistence and Structural Violence in Law (Studies in World-Formation, Vol. 14)

Authors: Speed, Timothy;

Ontological Coexistence and Structural Violence in Law (Studies in World-Formation, Vol. 14)

Abstract

Operatoric Research CorpusStudies in World-Formation Section VI Neurodivergent Rights, Law and Structural Violence Volume 14 Ontological Coexistence and Structural Violence in Law This volume brings together three contributions that address a shared theoretical and legal question: under what conditions do forms of structural violence toward neurodivergent people arise, and why do these forms of violence frequently remain invisible within modern institutional systems. The point of departure is the observation that contemporary social, legal, and administrative orders implicitly rely on assumptions about a uniform, neurotypical form of human existence. Perception, communication, work capacity, self-regulation, and social interaction are treated as general standards. Forms of existence that structurally diverge from these assumptions tend to appear within this framework either as illness, as individual deficit, or as insufficient adaptation. The contributions develop an ontological and legal-theoretical perspective for analyzing this problem. At the center lies the thesis that many conflicts between neurodivergent persons and institutional systems do not primarily arise from individual difficulties, but from a structural incompatibility between different forms of human existence and the normative architecture of modern societies. This incompatibility produces predictable forms of harm which, within legal and administrative procedures, are often individualized, pathologized, or interpreted as communicative disturbance. The volume unfolds this diagnosis in three interconnected steps. The first contribution introduces the concept of representational violence as an ontological critique of modern knowledge and administrative systems. It argues that, within many institutional contexts, reality is recognized only insofar as it can be translated into symbolic, administrative, or diagnostic formats. Forms of experience, perception, or existence that resist such translation do not merely remain unnoticed; they are structurally excluded from the sphere of what can appear as real. The second contribution develops, on this basis, the concept of a right to ontological coexistence. Neurodivergent forms of human existence are understood not as deviations from a general norm, but as autonomous variants of human world- and meaning-relation. Equality, therefore, cannot be conceived primarily as integration into a single social order. Instead, it must be understood as the legally protected coexistence of different forms of existence without coercion toward normalization, pathologization, or economic functionalization. The third contribution applies this perspective to the analysis of modern state institutions. Drawing on examples from social law, administrative procedures, and criminal-law attribution, it demonstrates how structural incompatibilities between neurodivergent forms of existence and work- and performance-centered systems generate foreseeable harms. Where existential dependency, known incompatibility, and predictable harm converge, state action can no longer be understood as neutral governance but must be recognized as a form of structural violence. Taken together, the volume develops a theoretical framework for analyzing modern societies under conditions of real ontological diversity. By connecting ontological critique, human rights reasoning, and legal system analysis, it aims to make visible forms of institutional violence that remain largely unrecognized in contemporary legal and social orders and to contribute to a reconsideration of equality, responsibility, and protective duties in plural societies.

Keywords

law social systems and neurodivergence, neurodivergence, activation policies and autism, law and neurodivergence, ontology and law, autism, social law and autism, ontological rights, representational violence, masking and structural coercion, legal responsibility for structural harm, neurodivergence and institutional violence, critical disability studies, institutional harm to neurodivergent people, administrative systems and neurodivergence, structural discrimination, neurodiversity paradigm, coexistence versus integration, legal recognition of neurodivergence, ontology of neurodivergence, ontology and human rights, welfare state and neurodivergence, disability rights theory, ontological coexistence, autistic epistemology, neurotypical normativity, autistic ontology, neurodivergent rights, symbolic violence, human rights and neurodiversity, ontological diversity, plural forms of human existence, philosophy of neurodiversity, legal theory of neurodiversity, structural violence, structural incompatibility, epistemic injustice, neurodivergence and work systems

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
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