Community Psychology and the Socio-Economics of Mental Distress

Providing a uniquely global perspective of community psychology, this is exciting and important reading for students and researchers at a variety of levels, written by leading experts in this area. Drawing on a wealth of experience and examples, it offers an essential guide to the political global context of this developing area of psychology.

CARL WALKER is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton, UK. His research interests in recent years have focused on mental health, social inequality, and body image and disfigurement. For a number of years, he worked at UCL coordinating a Europe-wide EC-funded project investigating the risk factors for depression in primary care. This work has allowed a unique perspective on the social and psychological issues pertaining to mental health. As well as designing and coordinating undergraduate and post-graduate courses in community psychology, he has just developed and validated an MA in Community Psychology which begins in the coming academic year. The course has already generated substantial interest.

KATHERINE JOHNSON is Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Director of Postgraduate Studies in the School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, UK, and lead the Mental Health research program. Her research interests are in Critical and Community Psychology, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Qualitative Methods. She has written in the field of mental health and LGBT experiences for a number of years, producing theoretical accounts informed by feminist and queer theory as well as community embedded empirical work. Recent activities include overseeing the development of an MA Community Psychology and completing a co-authored paper on suicide and the contingency of social life, and a single authored chapter on visual methodologies. She is currently completing a book, Sexuality and the Psychosocial Subject, to be submitted to Polity Press in February 2010 and developing international links with people working in the field of LGBT community psychology.

LIZ CUNNINGHAM is Senior Lecturer in Community Research and Practice at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research interests in recent years have focused on participatory research methods, and she is now teaching PAR at undergraduate and post-graduate level, and has developed a focus on Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and the role of the psychologist in the community. As well as designing and coordinating undergraduate and post-graduate courses in research methods and teaching community psychology at undergraduate and post-graduate level, she has worked with Dr. Carl Walker and Dr. Katherine Johnson to develop an MA in Community Psychology which begins in the coming academic year.