Embodying the Social: the challenge of urban violence and inequalities in the era of the exposome

Summary:

Novel biosocial approaches for understanding the pathways through which exposures across the life course (the ‘exposome’) shape mental health and wellbeing have potential for the identification of more effectively targeted policy interventions.

Our proposal, focussed on the impact of violence on mental health of young women in urban environments, develops and extends such approaches, building on a Social Science Plus pilot study with Islington Council to align demographic, epidemiological and embodied experiential data on mental health in the Borough. Such biosocial research requires sustained transdisciplinary collaboration, methodological innovation and commitment to ongoing dialogue between social scientists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists.

Our proposal seeks to deepen our transdisciplinary and public policy collaboration on mental health with departments at UCL (Anthropology, Psychiatry, Bartlett, IAS), Islington Council and local community groups. We will forge further collaborations with Islington Council, building on the MOU with UCL and expand our innovative methodological approaches with small pilot studies in comparative contexts outside the UK, including in Porto and São Paulo where PI’s and CoI’s have ongoing collaborations, laying the foundations for wider multi-country collaboration funding bids.