context (n.) - ...from Latin contextus "a joining together," from assimilated form of com "with, together" + texere "to weave, to make"
This is a collection of "texts" that show the ideas I'm connected with. You'll see that I tend to use podcasts, lectures and documentaries. This is because I am disabled by our reliance on written word and our writing conventions. I mainly "read" conversational audio, I use subtitles and I write with speech to text transcription.
The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files
TV programme: youtube version has no subtitles, also in iPlayer with subtitles
This documentary educated me about how White Britishness has been policed during "decolonization". It tells the history of the state's deliberate creation of a "hostile environment" that harassed racialized British people and led to black British citizens facing deportation in 2014.
Critical realism, community psychology, and the curious case of autism: A philosophy and practice of science with social justice in mind
Written research paper - no audio
Monique Botha is the author, they are an autistic researcher. This paper really spoke to my understanding of the structural problems in the 'science' within psychology.
Critical Identity Politics - beyond HR categories
Podcast, no transcript
Identity politics seemed like a critical route to justice when I first came across it, but then it I began to find its limitations. This philosopher explains really clearly where it can go wrong, and also how it can lead to deeper understandings of social justice.
"Mental health": how a benign category might be dangerous
Podcast with transcript
This interview with a sociologist academic explains how "mental health" serves economic interests. In particular he explains how productivity drives definitions of disorders. He points to research showing our levels of psychological distress have remained stable whilst the rates of diagnosed 'disorders' has massively increased.
The Failings of "Mental Health"
Mental Illness is Not in Your Head
Written word article, no audio
Article on the history and current context of psychiatry covering how the chemical imbalance theory and biological underpinning theories didn't work. How the lack of 'solutions/cures' leads to understanding that our environment creates our mind.
Mental Illness is Not in Your Head
How the Brain Makes Emotions
Video with subtitles
I experience neurodivergent emotional life and it's be extraordinarily helpful to understand the science of emotion. This cinematic lecture by Lisa Feldman-Barrett explains how emotions are constructed. They are a combination of sensations in the body, made sense of through learned concepts that are particular to each human culture.
A Cinematic Lecture on Emotion
