identities in postmodernity. This is pivotal to understanding disabilities as it undermines the governing rules that define normality by appreciating disability as a social construct (Tregaskis, 2002). From a SSR perspective, the inclusive approach that postmodernity offers reflects the celebration of difference and desire to research the real social world. However, with the proliferation of identities in contemporary society, identity construction has become problematic. With relation to autism, psychologists suggest that the autistic spectrum is becoming too all-encompassing that the difference between those with autism and the general public will become non-existent in less than 10-years (Rødgaard, Jensen, Vergnes, Soulières & Mottron, 2019). Supporting this, Clements (2019) suggests that “many people now self-identify as autistic as though it were a fashion label rather than a debilitating disorder”. This attitude has led to the marginalisation of autistic people, and social media enhances this with ‘#ActuallyAutistic’ encouraging people to self-identify. It is evident that while a proliferation of identities offers liberation by encouraging people to construct their own identities, but can have detrimental impacts on those who are disabled.

While the construction of identities in modernity and postmodernity differ, with modernity offering linear identities and postmodernity enabling individuals to choose their identity. The two overlap due to the need for linearity but also individualism.

Conclusion

The fault-lines of modernity and postmodernity have been explored through knowledge claims and identity formation. Modernity focusses on rationality and a top-down approach to knowledge and identity construction. While this may be beneficial for classification and to build the foundations of knowledge, modernity rejects individuation which can lead to marginalisation. In comparison, postmodernity follows the decline of absolute truth and meta-narratives resulting in knowledge and identity being subjective. While postmodernity does not exclude the need for classification that modernity afforded, the lens of critique that postmodernity offers extends the boundaries of disability studies by appreciating the lived experience as subjective. By adopting a postmodernist stance to research autism opens up a realm of critiquing opportunity to challenge some of the existing