Autonomous Neurodivergent City-States: A Blueprint for Self-Governance, Safety, and Full Inclusion

David Ruttenberg
Aug 22
4 min read

### Alt-text for Neurodivergent City Illustration

Illustration of a vibrant, future-ready cityscape designed for neurodivergent inclusion: wide pedestrian lanes lined with trees; soft, adjustable street-lighting; quiet zones marked by blue signage; diverse adults and children collaborating at outdoor tables, some using tablets, others communicating with sign language or AAC devices; a community mural reading “Nothing About Us Without Us”; background buildings feature rooftop gardens and glass hubs labeled “Sensory Tech Co-Lab”; sky is bright but gentle, conveying an atmosphere of optimism and empowerment.

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Picture a community where bright lights never blind, alarms never jolt, and meetings pause until every person, regardless of their processing speed, has caught up. Now imagine that place isn’t a niche clinic or short-lived retreat but an officially recognized jurisdiction—a Neurodivergent City-State—that's been co-designed, governed, and economically made possible and powered by neurodivergent citizens themselves.

Radical? Absolutely.

Impossible? History says otherwise.

When the United States acknowledged Native tribes’ inherent sovereignty, it ceded territory, carved out regulatory space for tribally run enterprises such as casinos, and—however imperfectly—opened paths for economic self-determination while keeping tribes inside the nation’s legal fabric.

A comparable framework can (and must!) safeguard neurodivergent communities, letting them pilot new social contracts without forfeiting participation in broader society.

Why Sovereignty Matters

Conventional inclusion efforts bolt accommodations onto neurotypical systems: a quiet room here, a flexible schedule there. Progress, yes—but always reactive, always fragile.

By contrast, a self-governed district starts first from principles that include:

Environmental Design: Lighting, acoustics, and way-finding are drawn around diverse sensory thresholds, not squeezed into ADA loopholes.
Governance Architecture: Decision-making embraces alternative communication and processing styles—written-first deliberations, asynchronous voting windows, double-loop feedback so slower processors, regardless of their differences, influence outcomes.
Economic Model: Value flows from hyper/hypo-focus, hyper/hypo/sensory-seeking, pattern recognition, and creative divergence—skills often under-rewarded in standard labor markets.

Critics may fear balkanization: “Will separate districts segregate neurodivergent people?” Tribal precedents show the opposite. Sovereignty enabled tribes to become economic engines—casino revenues fund schools, health clinics, and infrastructure that benefit both members and neighboring towns. Similarly, neurodivergent city-states can—and must—accomplish the same, if not more.

Nothing About Us, Without Us—Literally

The rallying cry of disability justice, nothing about us without us, must steer every step, like:

Founders’ Assembly – A majority-neurodivergent drafting convention defines the charter: land use codes, fiscal policy, policing alternatives, conflict resolution, and exit-entry rights with surrounding jurisdictions.
Community Juries – Rotating, stipend-paid panels of residents evaluate any policy change, urban-planning proposal, or external investment offer.
Open-Source Governance Stack – All rules, budgets, and deliberation transcripts live on public ledgers so outsiders can inspect—yet cannot override—community decisions.

Shielding Residents from Harm

Autonomy alone won’t prevent backlash: curiosity tourism, data extraction, or even hate crime sprees. Protective layers are essential and can include:

Territorial Recognition – Federal and state statutes must enshrine these city-states as special districts with clear policing agreements, extradition protocols, and civil-rights enforcement.
Data Sovereignty – Biometric or behavioral data gathered inside the district belong to residents exclusively and collectively; any external use requires supermajority consent with royalties feeding a communal trust.
Anti-Exploitation Zoning – No company may site “therapeutic” facilities that harvest inexpensive labor or market unproven cures. Violators face expulsion and treble damages payable to a victim relief fund across the entirety of the community.
Rapid-Response Legal Teams – On-call civil-rights attorneys and trauma-informed counselors intervene after any external threat—digital, physical, or otherwise.

Integration, Not Isolation

Critics may fear balkanization: “Will separate districts segregate neurodivergent people?” Tribal precedents show the opposite. Sovereignty enabled tribes to become economic engines—casino revenues fund schools, health clinics, and infrastructure that benefit both members and neighboring towns. Similarly, neurodivergent city-states would:

Export Expertise – Offer consultancies in inclusive design, AI ethics, and sensory-sensitive and sensory-aware architecture, enriching global practice.
Host Cultural Tourism – Festivals celebrating stimming dance, synesthetic art, and silent story slams attract visitors who leave with deeper understanding (and revenue contribution).
Incubate Innovation – Tax incentives and venture funds entice startups co-owned by residents with differences; IP royalties cycle back into public services to benefit the very communities themselves.
Reciprocal Citizenship – Residents keep full national passports and voting rights, ensuring federal representation while retaining local autonomy.

Roadmap to Reality: Neurodivergent City-States

Let's make this possible now by immediately addressing:

Land Acquisition or Designation
- Partner with forward-thinking municipalities to allocate underused industrial zones or rural parcels.
- Alternatively, negotiate federal surplus land transfers akin to historical tribal agreements.
Legal Framework
- Draft a Neurodivergent Sovereignty Act modeled on tribal compacts: taxation powers, business licensing, and law-enforcement jurisdiction spelled out to prevent legal gray zones.
- Secure bipartisan co-sponsors by emphasizing economic development, disability-rights leadership, and reduced burden on traditional social services.
Capital Stack
- Seed funding from philanthropy and social-impact bonds.
- Long-term revenue via cooperative businesses—sensory-tech manufacturing, remote analytics hubs, and ethical data trusts licensing anonymized insights under resident control.
Pilot District
- Launch with 500–1,000 residents to validate governance protocols, safety nets, and economic assumptions.
- Publish annual open-data impact reports—employment rates, mental-health metrics, crime statistics—to iterate and build public trust.
Scaling & Federation
- Once proven, replicate in multiple states, forming a federation that shares best practices, collective bargaining power, and mutual-aid disaster response.

Invitation to Co-Produce

This vision can’t germinate behind closed doors or arrive pre-packaged from a think tank.

Rather, it demands broad, messy, joyful co-production, inspired by:

Open Design Charter (90 Days) – Register as resident co-authors, ally advisers, or technical volunteers. All sessions captioned, American Sign Langue (ASL) and other neurodivergent-interpreted, text-transcribed, and time-flexible communications.
Digital Commons Forum – Ongoing deliberation platform where every idea—from zoning diagrams to funding models—receives community markup before adoption.
Safeguard Watch Corps – Crowd-sourced monitoring to flag predatory outsiders, discriminatory policies, or internal power imbalances, ensuring continuous accountability.

Closing

Neurodivergent city-states are not escapist fantasies; they’re the next civil-rights frontier—a chance to transform marginalization into mastery, to craft environments that lift every unique brain instead of sanding down its edges. By rooting sovereignty in co-production, erecting hard protections against exploitation, and maintaining porous borders that enrich the wider world, we can emulate—and improve upon—the tribal-commerce model that turned dispossession into self-determined prosperity.

The blueprint is on the table. The pens are in your hands.

#NeurodivergentSovereignty #NeurodiversityRevolution #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #CoDesignForAll #InclusiveUrbanism #SensoryFriendlyCities #RadicalInclusion #DisabilityJustice #DataSovereignty #AccessibleInnovation #CommunitySelfGovernance #AdaptiveArchitecture #SocialModelNow #FutureOfInclusion #NDCityState

About the Author:

Dr David Ruttenberg PhD, FRSA, FIoHE, AFHEA is a neuroscientist, autism advocate, and Fulbright Specialist Awardee dedicated to advancing ethical artificial intelligence, neurodiversity accommodation, and transparent science communication. With a background spanning music production to cutting-edge wearable technology, Dr Ruttenberg combines science and compassion to empower individuals and communities to thrive. Inspired daily by their brilliant autistic daughter and family, Dr Ruttenberg strives to break barriers and foster a more inclusive, understanding world.