Subjectivity in a context of environmental change: opening new dialogues in mental health research

Author(s)

da Cal Seixas, Sonia Regina ; Nunes, Richard Joseph

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: SUBJECTIVITY; v. 10, n. 3, p. 294-312, SEP 2017.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

In a period of unstable experimentation with challenges of globalization of associated risks, and disenchantment with `enduring injustice', we bring forward a consideration of subjectivity to the study of environmental change and mental health. We begin by identifying how mainstream climate change and mental health studies are unable to explain the emergent and co-evolutionary pathways of agency. As a means of freeing these studies of their objective dimensions of linear-causation, we argue in favour of a re-positioning of subjectivity within an appreciation of recognition conflicts and beyond the over-deterministic interpretations of power centres-state, market or religion. We draw on one example of scientific research that was conducted in a region undergoing strong environmental, social and cultural changes, in the state of Sao Paulo/Brazil, with the aim to open mental health research to new dialogues, to which we contribute with the notion of the `pluriversal subject'. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/17173-5 - Mental health, violence and urban global environmental change in the export corridor Tamoios - D. Pedro I, São Paulo, Brazil
• Grantee: Sonia Regina da Cal Seixas
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 12/22578-1 - Risk and subjectivity in the context of global environmental change
• Grantee: Sonia Regina da Cal Seixas
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research