Bedlam on the Streets / Edition 1

by Caroline Knowles

Overview

What happens when the mad are let out of the asylum and there is nowhere for them to go?

This hard-hitting and controversial new book traces the terms on which the mad occupy the city's streets, homeless shelters, shopping centres and fast food outlets. This social geography of madness is situated within the broader parameters of systems of social welfare and globalization, arguing that the 'community mental health care'system is actually a system of neglect.

Bedlam on the Streets is a richly textured ethnography combining stark photographic images of people and places with an examination of city space and the voices of those that we label "mad".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415232999
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/28/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

1. Voice, Image and Text 2. Madness and the Grammar of Urban Space 3. Interior Space, Aesthetics and Subjectivities 4. Living in Transit 5. 'Schizophrenic' Lives 6. Dangerousness and Endangerment 8. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

In researching Montreal's "liberal" mental health system with an interdisciplinary team from the city's Concordia U., Knowles (sociology, U. of Southampton) found fragmented community services mediated by race, ethnicity, gender, and values about urban space. Includes visual and narrative images of "strategies of representation" by those struggling to survive on the street. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

'Bedlam more than succeeds ... its methodological plurality and ethico-political standpoint work together admirably.' - Sociology

From the Publisher