Wellbeing in Minorities Network

The aim of the network is to bring together scholars working at or interested in the intersection of minority research and wellbeing. It is intended to provide researchers working in the fields of minority research, health and care studies, social sciences, law, as well as some subfields of bioscience a platform for discussion of how marginalised, liminal or subordinated position(ing) within the social hierarchies and realities, structural and practical inequalities and wellbeing are intertwined.

The network builds on a broad understanding of minorities and the processes of minoritization, and seeks to advance studies of wellbeing in minorities as a distinct line of theorising, and a research practice. We intend to expand the discussion by exploring new forms of minoritization, as well as novel responses to them that emerge on global and local levels. The network approaches wellbeing on physical, mental and social welfare levels, which implies multiple actors being involved in the creation, maintenance or disruption of this condition. We seek to grasp the role of variegated actors – policy makers, professionals, activists, but also non-human subjects and technologies – in reconfiguration inequalities, co-articulating agency, and shaping the practices of resistance.

The set of the discussed approaches facilitates bridging diverse, often seen as discrete/divided fields of academic knowledge on minorities and health. It enables interdisciplinary dialogue and thus novel perspectives. It also promotes cooperation between scholars and actors outside academia – members of minority communities, as well as those involved in health and care provision for the subordinated groups. By doing so, it puts forward the exploration and discussion on specificity, promotion, and challenges to minorities’ well-being from multiple angles.