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Power, powerlessness and the politics of mobility: Reconsidering mental health geographies

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  • Lowe, James
  • DeVerteuil, Geoffrey

Abstract

We use a qualitative, longitudinal study of 25 individuals with mental illness in the UK to better understand the relationships among mental health, power/lessness and im/mobility. Framed by the rise of the new mobilities paradigm and more specifically Cresswell's (2010) politics of mobility, we find that the extent to which the respective mobilities were expressions of internal free will or were undertaken as a result of external compulsion is a key demarcator of mental health. A key contribution is understanding the involuntary nature of (forced) immobility, or what we call entrapment. Entrapment is a punishing phenomenon, which causes distress to those unfortunate to experience it, and which can often be deepened rather than alleviated by those statutory bodies charged with providing care and support. The results speak to the need to recognize that (1) mobility is always relational and contextual, (2) (im)mobility is as much involuntary as voluntary, and that this has crucial implications for (mental) health, and (3) that the experience of individuals suffering from mental illness very much overlaps with what Philo (2017) called ‘less-than-human geographies’, providing a much-needed rebalance to the over-emphasis on well-being within health geography and (mental) health policy.

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  • Lowe, James & DeVerteuil, Geoffrey, 2020. "Power, powerlessness and the politics of mobility: Reconsidering mental health geographies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:252:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620301374
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112918
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Erin Mifflin & Robert Wilton, 2005. "No Place like Home: Rooming Houses in Contemporary Urban Context," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(3), pages 403-421, March.
    2. Chris Philo, 2014. "'One Must Eliminate the Effects of ... Diffuse Circulation [and] their Unstable and Dangerous Coagulation': Foucault and Beyond the Stopping of Mobilities," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 493-511, September.
    3. Whitley, Rob & Prince, Martin, 2005. "Fear of crime, mobility and mental health in inner-city London, UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(8), pages 1678-1688, October.
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    1. Maria Fjellfeldt & Ebba Högström & Lina Berglund-Snodgrass & Urban Markström, 2021. "Fringe or Not Fringe? Strategies for Localizing Supported Accommodation in a Post‐Deinstitutional Era," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 201-213.
    2. Nanath, Krishnadas & Balasubramanian, Sreejith & Shukla, Vinaya & Islam, Nazrul & Kaitheri, Supriya, 2022. "Developing a mental health index using a machine learning approach: Assessing the impact of mobility and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).

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