Misunderstood and underappreciated: A critical review of mental health advocacy and activism in low- and middle-income countries.

Mental health advocacy and activism have been highlighted as important in the effort towards creating environments for better mental health. However, relevant research in low- and middle-income (LMIC) settings remains limited and lacks critical exploration. We seek to contribute to filling this gap by exploring driving factors behind mental health advocacy and activism efforts in LMIC settings. This review uses a critically informed thematic analysis using conceptual frameworks of productive power to analyse peer-reviewed articles on mental health advocacy or activism over the last twenty years. We suggest that the current body of research is marred by superficial explorations of activism and advocacy, partly due to a lack of cohesion around definitions. Based on our findings, we suggest a conceptual framework to guide deeper explorations of mental health advocacy and activism. This framework identifies Legitimacy, Context, and Timing as the main dimensions to consider in understanding activism and advocacy efforts. The fact that they remain misunderstood and underappreciated creates missed opportunities for meaningful inclusion of lived experience in policy decisions and limits our understanding of how communities envision and enact change.

Gender-inclusive consumer studies improve cassava breeding in Nigeria.

Including gender research in cassava breeding makes it easier for farmers to adopt new varieties that meet the specific needs and preferences of both male and female farmers, leading to increased adoption of new varieties, improved productivity, and better economic outcomes for the entire farming community. Gender was included in 2013 in variety development at the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, Nigeria in response to the dis-adoption of some varieties by farmers who had not been part of varietal development from the start, and in light of social roles which influence the responsibilities, resources and livelihood outcomes of men, women and youths. Gender inclusion has given plant breeders accurate information about the cassava traits preferred by all end-users, not just male farmers. At NRCRI, gender studies intensified in the last 5 years, contributing to the development and release of improved varieties. Quantitative and qualitative research by the gender cross-cutting team modeled trait profiling and consumer preferences, to aid demand-led breeding. Some of the methods were acquired at several trainings on how to quantify qualitative responses for prioritization. Gender research techniques include participatory varietal selection (PVS), participatory plant breeding (PPB), mother-baby trials, focus group discussions (FGD), surveys, value chain mapping, G+ tools, experiments in farmer field schools (FFS), demonstration farms, and tricot. These gave the cross-cutting team a better understanding of gender relations, power, decision-making, ownership and control of resources, and have mitigated operational and field challenges during the surveys. These methods also elicited feedback from end-users that led to better naming of newly released varieties, reflecting perceptions of agronomic performance, and food qualities, which made the varieties easier to identify and remember.

Feminist retroviruses to white Sharia: Gender "science fan fiction" on 4Chan.

This article demonstrates-based on an interpretive discourse analysis of three types of memes (Rabid Feminists, Women's Bodies, Policy Ideas) and secondary thread discourse on 4chan's "Politically Incorrect" discussion board-two key findings: (1) the existence of a gendered hate based scientific discourse, "science fan fiction," in online spaces and (2) how gender "science fan fiction" is an outcome of the male supremacist cosmology, by producing and justifying resentment against white women as being both inherently untrustworthy (politically, sexually, intellectually) and dangerous. This perspective-which combines hatred and distrust of women with white nationalist anxieties about demographic shifts, racial integrity, and sexuality-then motivates misogynist policy ideas including total domination of women or their removal. 4chan users employ this discourse to "scientifically" substantiate claims of white male supremacy, the fundamental untrustworthiness of white women, and to argue white women's inherent threat to white male supremacist goals.

Generations, events, and social movement legacies: Unpacking social change in English football (1980-2023).

This article critically employs the case of association football in England, from 1980 to 2023, as a social movement timescape, to examine the political consciousness and long-term mobilisations of a generation of football supporter activists, and their capacity to influence politics, and respond to new, emerging, critical junctures, through networks of trust and shared memories of historical events. This is of crucial importance to sociology because it reveals the tensions between what are considered legitimate and illegitimate social practices which characterise contemporary society's moral economy. Focusing on temporal contestations over regulation, policing, governance and cultural rituals, the article deconstructs the role of generations in social movements, and critically synthesises relational-temporal sociology and classic and contemporary work on the sociology of generations, to show how legacy operates as a multifaceted maturing concept of power and time. In English football's neoliberal timescape, the supporters' movement has reached a critical juncture; the future will require a new generation of activists, to negotiate, resist and contest the new hegemonic politics of social control and supporter engagement.

Statewide Age-Friendly Virtual Fair as a Tactic for Social Change Across the Aging Ecosystem.

Prior research has demonstrated ways in which community events help to establish age-friendly community initiatives and strengthen their impact. We extend these insights by discussing how the design and implementation of a statewide event - the New Jersey Age-Friendly Virtual Fair - exemplifies this practice theory and extends its applicability beyond local community development toward broader state-level age-friendly ecosystems. We describe how events that are deliberately multi-organizational, multi-sectoral, and multi-level can help to further propel the Age-Friendly Movement toward systems change for aging in community.

"That's what we think of as activism": Solidarity through care in queer Desi diaspora.

This article examines a framing of solidarity as both activism and community care work in diasporic South Asian (sometimes referred to as "Desi") communities in the US and the UK. From the vantage point of the researcher as a pansexual Indian-American activist herself, this article draws conclusions based on ethnographic research and interviews conducted with lesbian, gay, queer, and trans activists during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black-led uprisings against police and state violence in the US and the UK. These conversations and this article particularly examine the participation of Desi activists and their peers in these movements, and their explorations of different modes of solidarity, from joint struggle to allyship to coconspiratorship and community transformation. They ultimately argue that queerness in Desi diaspora fosters solidarity through care that nurtures relationships across and between the diverse groups that make up LGBTQ + communities and the Desi diaspora, as well as between Desi, Black, and other racialized and diasporic communities. By examining lesbian, gay, trans, and broadly queer South Asian activists' relationships to each other and to other racialized groups in struggle, this article conceptualizes a framing of solidarity and Black and Brown liberation together that transcends difference, transphobia and TERFism, and anti-Blackness through centering kinship and care. Through the intimacies borne out of months and years on the frontlines of struggle together, this article argues that deepening an understanding of activism, kinship, and care together in Desi diasporic organizing is key to building a solidarity that imagines and moves toward new and liberated worlds.

"We been dying, and you got me on a call helping you stay alive": Black and Latinx youth organizers' experiences of racism in gun violence prevention organizations.

This study explored Black and Latinx youth organizers' experiences of racism within national gun violence prevention organizing spaces. Interview data were analyzed from 17 Black and/or Latinx youth (Mage = 20.17, 47% women) across the United States who organized against gun violence. The findings identified three forms of racism that Black and Latinx organizers experienced in national organizations: (1) being tokenized for their racial identities and experiences without having real decision making power; (2) feeling a burden to educate their white peers about the structural causes of gun violence and how to improve organizing spaces for other youth of color; and (3) being silenced in their racially conscious organizing efforts to address the structural causes of gun violence in their communities. This research highlights how Black and Latinx youth gun violence prevention organizers contend both with structural racism in their everyday lives and racism in organizing spaces.

The fight for power: historical women's movements of Russia and Great Britain in comparison.

In the second half of the 19th century, women began to organize worldwide to achieve the goal of gender equality. National women's movements emerged and were followed somewhat later by the first transnational political mobilization of women on a larger scale. The range of topics that were on the national and international agenda included, alongside the access to education and the enforcement of equal civil rights, as well as the fight for political participation, with the women's right to vote taking center stage. The political, social, and cultural contexts, in which women raised their voices, varied. On the national level, female activists often had conflicting positions and their strategies reflected a wide spectrum; the chosen forms and the course of the protest, on the other hand, showed similarities.

Health policy counterpublics: Enacting collective resistances to US molecular HIV surveillance and cluster detection and response programs.

Health policies and the problems they constitute are deeply shaped by multiple publics. In this article we conceptualize health policy counterpublics: temporally bounded socio-political forms that aim to cultivate particular modes of conduct, generally to resist trajectories set by arms of the state. These counterpublics often emerge from existing social movements and involve varied forms of activism and advocacy. We examine a health policy counterpublic that has arisen in response to new forms of HIV public health surveillance by drawing on public documents and interview data from 2021 with 26 stakeholders who were critical of key policy developments. Since 2018, the national rollout of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) and cluster detection and response (CDR) programs in the United States has produced sustained controversies among HIV stakeholders, including among organized networks of people living with HIV. This article focuses on how a health policy counterpublic formed around MHS/CDR and how constituents problematized the policy agenda set in motion by federal health agencies, including in relation to data ethics, the meaningful involvement of affected communities, informed consent, the digitization of health systems, and HIV criminalization. Although familiar problems in HIV policymaking, concerns about these issues have been reconfigured in response to the new sociotechnical milieu proffered by MHS/CDR, generating new critical positions aiming to remake public health. Critical attention to the scenes within which health policy controversies play out ought to consider how (counter)publics are made, how problems are constituted, and the broader social movement dynamics and activist resources drawn upon to contest and reimagine policymaking in public life.

On the genealogy of the global health justice movement.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the struggle for global health justice must be our highest priority. To understand the challenges that such a priority faces, we must recognise that this struggle has a long history, and to analyse current challenges within this historical perspective. This commentary explores the gradual construction of the global health justice movement during different historical periods (tropical/colonial medicine, international health, and global health) in the history of approaches to health worldwide. It examines the changing relationship between the political economy of capitalism, colonialism, and racism. It analyses attempts to confront injustice through both human rights and social justice movements in seeking to address stigma and discrimination as well as poverty and social exclusion. It highlights emerging battlegrounds such as access to medical treatments and healthcare services as well as the ways in which private interests continue to undercut such efforts. But it also points to windows of opportunity for defending principles such as solidarity and social inclusion, for building advocacy/analysis alliances and toolkits to inform social movements, and possibilities to reconstruct global health 'governance' mechanisms and institutions in accord with the most basic principles of health justice.

A systems science leverage point analysis of climate change advocacy.

Failure of governments across the world to address climate change has fuelled social movements focused on climate-related policy and action. Research analysing these movements has focused mainly on the types of strategies employed including blockades and occupations, marches and petitions, divestment, boycotts and litigation as well as how groups are framing climate change as a problem. What has been largely missed are the ways these groups are framing the change they want to see, that is their demands to governments. Not all demands and actions have the same potential to create the changes needed to mitigate climate change. Used in public health and health promotion, the systems science Intervention Level Framework (ILF) is a tool that can help analyse to what extent different demands have the leverage to create change in a system. We use the ILF to analyse 131 demands from 35 different climate-related advocacy groups in Australia. Results show demands are more focused on lower system leverage points, such as stopping particular projects, rather than on more impactful leverage points, such as the governance structures that determine climate-related policy and decision-making mechanisms. Further, the results highlight the lack of attention on public health related topics of transport and food systems. This paper shows how a systems science framework used in health promotion, the ILF, could enable climate advocacy groups to more effectively target demands to achieve more impactful outcomes from governments, corporations and the public.

A Psicanálise nos Conflitos Políticos: Clínica, Ciência e Coletivos / The Psychoanalysis in Political Conflicts: Clinic, Science and Collectives / El Psicoanálisis en los Conflictos Políticos: Clínica, Ciencia y Colectivos

O artigo desponta da construção de um amplo panorama que localiza afinidades estruturais e tensões problemáticas entre a psicanálise e os coletivos. Nossa revisão de literatura, sobre psicanálise e política, discerne o valor da análise do psicanalista na sustentação da tarefa de subversões políticas do divã às praças públicas. Na sequência, pensamos as repercussões da política da psicanálise frente aos debates que envolvem neurodiversidade/autismo, cientificismo psicoterápico e capitalismo. Pretendemos criticar uma versão alienante da política, versão protagonista dos diferentes temas que abordamos e veiculada pelo agente na função do semblante - a lei, o saber-todo ou o indivíduo hedonista servo de seus mais-de-gozar (discurso capitalista). Na contrapartida dessa versão, está a prática advinda de um Judeu - ou seja, de um corpo que viveu os efeitos do racismo dos discursos, antes mesmo da ascensão do Nazismo - e elaborada através da escuta de algo amordaçado na potencialidade da sexualidade feminina. A partir de tais fatos, argumentamos uma crucial chave de leitura à psicanálise nos conflitos políticos: interrogar a subjetividade de quem psicanalisa. Resultando no questionamento de modalizações conservadoras que marcaram a história da clínica psicanalítica e ainda ressoam no fazer teórico-prático.

The article emerges from the construction of a large panorama that locates structural affinities and problematic tensions between psychoanalysis and collectives. Our literature review on Psychoanalysis and Politics discerns the value of the psychoanalyst's analysis in sustaining the task of political subversions from the divan to the public space. In the sequence, we consider the repercussions of the politics of psychoanalysis in the face of debates involving neurodiversity/autism, psychotherapeutic scientificism and capitalism. We intend to criticize an alienating version of politics, a version that is the protagonist of the different themes we approach and which is conveyed by the agent in the function of the semblant - the law, the all-knowing or the hedonistic individual who is the servant of his own surplus-jouissance (capitalist discourse). The counterpart to this version is the practice coming from a Jew - that is, from a body that lived the effects of the racism of discourses, even before the rise of Nazism - and elaborated by listening to something muzzled in the potentiality of female sexuality. Based on these facts, we argue that there is a crucial key to psychoanalysis in political conflicts: questioning the subjectivity of those who psychoanalyze. This results in the questioning of conservative modalizations that have marked the history of the psychoanalytic clinic and still resonate in the doing of theoretical-practical.

El artículo surge de la construcción de un amplio panorama que localiza afinidades estructurales y tensiones problemáticas entre el psicoanálisis y los colectivos. Nuestra revisión bibliográfica, sobre Psicoanálisis y Política, discute el valor del análisis del psicoanalista para sostener la tarea de subversiones políticas del diván a las plazas públicas. En seguida, pensamos en las repercusiones de la política del psicoanálisis frente a los debates sobre neurodiversidad/autismo, cientificismo psicoterapéutico y capitalismo. Pretendemos criticar una versión alienante de la política, una versión que protagoniza en los diferentes temas que abordamos y que es vehiculada por el agente en el papel del semblante - la ley, el saber-todo o el individuo hedonista siervo de su propio más-de-gozar (discurso capitalista). En la contrapartida de esta versión está la práctica proveniente de un judío - es decir, de un cuerpo que vivió los efectos del racismo de los discursos, incluso antes del ascenso del nazismo - y elaborada al escuchar algo amordazado en la potencialidad de la sexualidad femenina. A partir de estos hechos, sostenemos que hay una clave de lectura crucial del psicoanálisis en los conflictos políticos: cuestionar la subjetividad de quienes psicoanalizan. Esto resulta en el cuestionamiento de las modalidades conservadoras que han marcado la historia de la clínica psicoanalítica y aún resuenan en el hacer teórico-práctico.

When Are Social Protests Effective?

Around the world, people engage in social protests aimed at addressing major societal problems. Certain protests have led to significant progress, yet other protests have resulted in little demonstrable change. We introduce a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of social protest made up of three components: (i) what types of action are being considered; (ii) what target audience is being affected; and (iii) what outcomes are being evaluated? We then review relevant research to suggest how the framework can help synthesize conflicting findings in the literature. This synthesis points to two key conclusions: that nonviolent protests are effective at mobilizing sympathizers to support the cause, whereas more disruptive protests can motivate support for policy change among resistant individuals.

Parent-Adolescent Conflict: Adolescents' Coping Strategies and Preferred Parenting Styles during the Social Movements in Hong Kong, 2019.

This research investigated parent-adolescent conflict, conflict resolution strategies and perceived parenting styles by adolescents during the social movements in Hong Kong in 2019, a period characterized by considerable social unrest in which many young people participated in demonstrations and protests. The study drew on responses from 866 adolescents aged between 11 and 16 who completed a questionnaire that included a conflict issue checklist and elicited respondents' conflict resolution strategies as well as perceived parenting styles. Correlation analysis was performed to identify the correlation of parent-adolescent conflicts with differences in political stances with their parents and other demographic data. Regression analysis was performed to identify the correlation of perceived parenting styles and conflict resolution strategies adopted by adolescents. Results indicated that early adolescents have a higher intensity of conflicts with their parents than late adolescents in this period. Respondents had more intense conflicts with their parents over political differences and ways of expressing their political views than other issues. Those respondents in conflict or ineffective arguing strategies perceived their parents as more authoritarian than those who adopt positive conflict resolution strategies. However, when asked about their ideal ways of resolving conflicts, adolescents preferred problem-solving rather than conflict strategies.

Collective action mitigates the negative effects of COVID-19 threat and anti-abortion restrictions on mental health.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives in many different domains, forcing people to adapt to countrywide lockdowns, school shutdowns, and business closures. The burden of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted also in deterioration of mental health. At the same time, political conflicts and social inequalities was reinforced and many people engaged in demonstrations to fight for their rights. This study examines whether collective acting for an important cause during the pandemic might mitigate the impact of both political tension related to anti-abortion restrictions and COVID-19 threats on mental health. METHODS: We conducted a two-wave study with a representative sample of the Polish population, investigating the effect of participating in Polish pro-choice demonstrations on depressive and anxiety symptoms. RESULTS: Participating in protests attenuated the negative effects of COVID-19 threat and anti-abortion restrictions on mental health. Moreover, we found that the feeling of solidarity with other demonstrators and sense of agency derived from such demonstrations led to lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that participating in meaningful and value-oriented collective action may serve as a buffer against the detrimental effects of social and health threats.

Participação social em saúde no Brasil: avanços e retrocessos do SUS 10 anos depois das Jornadas de Junho / Social participation in health in Brazil: advances and setbacks of SUS 10 years after the Jornadas de Junho / Participación social en salud en Brasil: avances y retrocesos del SUS 10 años después de las Jornadas de Junho

Com o objetivo de analisar a diretriz constitucional da participação social em saúde, considerando avanços e retrocessos do Sistema Único de Saúde, o presente artigo apoia-se numa breve revisão do estado da arte e em parte da produção do Observatório de Análise Política em Saúde. Discute, sucintamente, o conceito de participação social e suas conexões com as noções de democracia e de movimentos sociais. Descreve certos momentos da participação social nas origens da Reforma Sanitária Brasileira e do Sistema Único de Saúde e na conformação da Constituição de 1988, indicando avanços e retrocessos, especialmente após as Jornadas de Junho. Finaliza discutindo problemas da participação social no Sistema Único de Saúde e os desafios na constituição de sujeitos sociais.

Aiming to analyze the constitutional guideline of social participation in health, considering the advances and setbacks of the Unified Health System, this paper is based on a brief review of the state of the art and on part of the production of the Observatory for Political Analysis in Health. It briefly discusses the concept of social participation and its connections with the notions of democracy and social movements. It describes certain moments of social participation in the origins of the Brazilian Health Reform and the Unified Health System and in the shaping of the 1988 Constitution, indicating advances and setbacks, especially after the Jornadas de Junho(June Demonstrations). It ends by discussing problems of social participation in the Unified Health System and the challenges in the constitution of social subjects.

Con el objetivo de analizar la directriz constitucional de la participación social en salud, considerando los avances y retrocesos del Sistema Único de Salud, este artículo se basa en una breve revisión del estado del arte y en parte de la producción del Observatorio de Análisis Político en Salud. Discute, brevemente, el concepto de participación social y sus conexiones con las nociones de democracia y movimientos sociales. Describe ciertos momentos de participación social en los orígenes de la Reforma Sanitaria Brasileña y del Sistema Único de Salud y en la conformación de la Constitución de 1988, indicando avances y retrocesos, especialmente después de las Jornadas de Junho. Finaliza discutiendo los problemas de la participación social en el Sistema Único de Salud y los desafíos en la constitución de sujetos sociales.

The Key Role of Social Movements in Protecting the Health of People and the Planet Comment on "Ensuring Global Health Equity in a Post-pandemic Economy".

In his recent article, titled "Ensuring Global Health Equity in a Post-pandemic Economy," Ronald Labonté addresses a key challenge the world is facing, trying to 'build back' after the global crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He explores and critically examines different policy options, from a more inclusive 'stakeholder model' of capitalism, to a greater role of states in shaping markets and investing in the protection of health and the environment, to more radical options that propose to reframe the capitalist mantra of growth and look at different ways to value and center our societies around what really matters most to protect life. Social movements are key players in such transformation, however the political space they move in is progressively shrinking.

Messaging inclusion with consequence: U.S. sanctuary cities and immigrant wellbeing.

In the United States (U.S.), sanctuary cities have increasingly garnered public attention as places dedicated to increasing immigrant safety, inclusion, and health. These cities primarily rely on limiting local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement to deter immigrant detention and deportation. However, sanctuary policies' inability to extend immigrants' legal rights and their reliance on police as ushers of sanctuary may complicate how these spaces attend to their stated goals. In this paper, we examine how organizational workers conceptualize sanctuary, safety, and immigrant health and wellbeing within sanctuary cities. We draw on interviews with organizational workers in two sanctuary cities: Boston, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington collected between February and August 2018. Our findings reveal that immigrants continue to face structural barriers to housing, safe employment, education, and healthcare within sanctuary cities with consequences to wellbeing. Workers' definitions of safety draw on interconnected structural exclusion that prevent immigrants from accessing basic needs and fail to account for historically rooted forms of racism and nativism. Organizational workers identified tensions between messages of sanctuary and what local sanctuary policies offer in practice, providing insight into consequences of institutionalizing a grassroots social movement. As organizational workers negotiate these tensions, they must develop everyday sanctuary practices to extend immigrant inclusion, safety, health, and wellbeing.

A short history of the successes and failures of the international climate change negotiations.

The last 35 years have been a period of intense and continuous international negotiations to deal with climate change. During the same period of time humanity has doubled the amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There has, however, been progress and some notable successes in the negotiations. In 2015, at COP21 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 196 countries adopted the Paris Agreement stating that they would limit global temperatures to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and would pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The first review of the Paris Agreement was at COP26 in Glasgow with many countries pledging to go to net zero emissions by the middle of the century. But currently these pledges, if fulfilled, will only limit the global average temperature to between 2.4°C and 2.8°C. At COP27 in Egypt the core agreements from the Glasgow Climate Pact were maintained and countries finally agreed to set up a loss and damage facility - although details of who will provide the finance and who can claim are still be to be worked out. This article reviews the key moments in the history of international climate change negotiations and discusses what the key objectives are for future COP meetings.