Branding Neurodiversity: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Communicative Capitalism and Change Empowerment Among Neurodiversity Workforce Intermediaries

ABSTRACT

This study explores the critical nexus of communicative capitalism, neurodiverse employment, and DEI in public relations research. Through a critical discourse analysis of the owned and shared media of 13 neurodiversity workforce intermediaries (NWIs), we investigate how NWIs brand neurodiversity and their relationships with their publics against the backdrop of communicative capitalism. Our analysis unearthed power-laden tensions in traditional and novel brandings of neurodiversity, as well as ambivalent orientations that concurrently advocate for social change and economic productivity. We argue that attempts at change empowerment are short circuited by capitalist logics that value only those narrow elements of neurodiversity that fit within a business case for diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• change empowerment
• communicative capitalism
• DEI
• neurodiversity
• relationship management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).