Abstract
This chapter explores opportunities and challenges in interdisciplinary collaborations using the Mental Health and Justice project (MHJ) as a case study. It outlines background to the project with reflections on what is meant by ‘strong interdisciplinarity’ (which I argue MHJ was an instance of), ways the project navigated scholarship versus activism and the course of the project.
My main reflections are that strongly interdisciplinary projects offer multi-faceted opportunities for outputs, influences and impacts and that tension points are inherent and require a process of dynamic balance. I suggest that theories of strong interdisciplinarity need to evolve and that MHJ achieved its original strategic aims without being entirely bound to them. Furthermore, I suggest that there was a positive phenomenon of interdisciplinary collaboration as education that I try to capture.
My main reflections are that strongly interdisciplinary projects offer multi-faceted opportunities for outputs, influences and impacts and that tension points are inherent and require a process of dynamic balance. I suggest that theories of strong interdisciplinarity need to evolve and that MHJ achieved its original strategic aims without being entirely bound to them. Furthermore, I suggest that there was a positive phenomenon of interdisciplinary collaboration as education that I try to capture.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of Mental Health Law |
Editors | Brendan Kelly, Mary Donnelly |
Publisher | Routledge |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |