Seeking sunflowers: The biopolitics of autism at the airport

In this chapter we consider the biopolitics of autism through a discussion of the “Sunflower Lanyard Scheme”. In the United Kingdom, the lanyard system operates in places such as airports and supermarkets, to alert fellow customers and staff that the wearer has the label of disability. Frequently, the scheme is used by people who attract or claim the label of autism. We consider what such schemes give but, at the same time, what they might take away from (all) human beings. We explore one story about the use of the lanyard in an airport and the conversational exchange between the authors that was provoked by the story. We offer a biopolitical reading of the narrative and our conversation. Often biopolitics is drawn upon to make sure of the regulatory effects of discourses, but there is more to biopolitics than regulation; and we unpack the affirmative and excessive effects of biopolitics. This inevitably leads us to consider the biopolitics not simply of autism but of life itself. As we contemplate autism, we are contemplating what it means to be human.