Special Issue: Theorizing the “social” in mental health research and action

The special issue invites contributions that explore and theoretically innovate concepts of “the social” in mental health research and practice. How do we conceptualize the “social” in relation to mental health? What are the measures, narratives, sites, images, and actions that get at the structural, collective, and interrelated forces that make people well or ill? How are social causation, social change, and social interventions – and ultimately, a healthier society – imagined and actioned in our knowledge practices and on-the-ground initiatives? A thorough engagement with “the social” is vital for affecting real world change, working across epistemic boundaries, and co-producing knowledge and action with affected communities.

Advocacy and activist communities, social epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, epigenetics, and social psychiatry have offered important theorizations of the social dimension of mental health through frameworks such as social justice, the social determinants of health, social suffering, social cohesion, structural violence, or ecosocial theory, to name just a few. These theorizations are not only multiple, they are also situated and partial. Partial because they foreground some and obscure other ways of knowing. Situated because they are products of their time, place, discipline, and the positionalities of gatekeepers, which together determine what counts as knowledge and whose knowledge counts.

We invite authors to consider the varied facets of the “social” and to reflect on how we construct it. The “social” allows us to consider the bigger picture: inequality, power, knowledge, and the collective forces that make people well or ill. It allows us to look beyond the individual person, and the strictly medical view.

We invite data-based research articles, conceptual articles, commentaries, reflections on action in the field, audio-visual contributions, and art pieces. We ask all submissions to be interdisciplinary and/or inclusive of diverse perspectives. We ask for written or artistic contributions that engage the concepts, measures, stories, and actions that illuminate some of the following questions:

Concepts and measures: How is the “social” defined, measured, imagined, and acted upon in relation to mental health in your work? How can the shift to a social perspective help you innovate and advocate for change in mental health research, practice, or policy?

Disciplinary norms: Why are some approaches to the social more accepted than others? What alternatives approaches might better capture the intersection of society and mental health, and why?

Social change: How do we imagine the links between social change and mental health? What are the theories of change that underly your research, advocacy, and policy work?

Action: How does activism and the work of scholar-activists open opportunities for theorising the social through action?

Critique: What does “social critique” mean and how does it motivate activism and research? What are the limitations of current social theories? How does your work push beyond?

Storytelling: What kinds of stories bring the social dimension to life? Is a focus on suffering effective?

Power: How do you consider power and positionality in your knowledge production? How do you see it at work in clinical practices and policy-making?